Ever Stay Alone
by NoshMono
Summary: Jusenkyo curse hid a deeper plan by a Chaos goddess whose device span throughout time and dimension. A certain Saotome Ranma seemed to be in the midst of her plan and it fell upon Nabiki's shoulders to finish what had begun. RN
1. Prologue

A very injured man in tattered robe was struggling to walk along the pathway that would eventually lead to the Kerajaan Syurga's Castle, the bastion of the proud Blessbringer Clan. Blessbringer Clan. A proud clan whose name was whispered throughout the world because of the clan's powerful magic users. They were so dominant that no nations dare to challenge or try to subjugate them. It was said that the clan's beginning magic user would be enough to defeat an army of five thousands warriors. Despite having the power to control and change the world, the clan maintained its neutrality; instead preferring to devote its resources towards researching the secrets of the arcane. Indeed, to belong to the Blessbringer would mean being one of the most elite and the most talented magic users in the world.

But it was not with pride the man was struggling through the track; and neither with dignity nor with strength. Rather, it was with shame and fear that the man hobbled along the seemingly impossible tasks. However, despite that he continued on, as he had to warn of them of the impending threat. Ignoring the sharp pain at his side and the sensation of his life oozing out from that area, he focused on what he had witnessed an hour before.

The Blessbringer Council has received a report of a commotion taking place at Parit Lama, a small village that was under the clan's protection. Thinking that it was some brigands harassing the villagers, the Elders sent a party of five sorcerers including him, to investigate the matter. They were not very far away from the village when they found a cloaked stranger obstructing their way. It turned out that the report about the unrest at the village was a ruse to get the Blessbringer to send their men to the place.

At first, five very experienced Blessbringer sorcerers against a single stranger seemed unfair. Unfortunately, it was, due to the stranger's strength and power. The stranger quickly moved in front of the group's leader and crushed the leader's jaw while the later was in midst of an incantation. Quickly understanding that the enemy was trying to prevent anyone from casting a high level spell, the five sorcerers quickly regroup and revised their strategy. Three of them cast spells that didn't need any incantation to buy some time for the other two to casts their high level spells. But it didn't go as planned. Even though they managed to distract the cloaked figure enough for the two spells to be cast, their enemy did something really unexpected.

It copied the two high level spells cast without needing to read the incantations.

After defeating their spells, the stranger brought out a Japanese style sword with a dark red blade and quickly attacked all of them. In less than few seconds, the rest of his companion were killed while he suffered a very heavy injury. Thinking that it had killed all of them, the stranger merely shrugged and left the place. Only after waiting a few minutes did he got up to return to the Kerajaan Syurga's Castle.

The injured sorcerer felt shiver course through his vein at the thought of the stranger's power. If a creature with such power attack, there would be no telling what would happen to the Clan. Even as he thought about the stranger's prowess, the sorcerer found his thought straying to the stranger's katana-like sword. Somehow, he felt as if he had seen the sword earlier, but where? While thinking about it, he had finally arrived at a small hill. He muttered an incantation and Kerajaan Syurga slowly appeared into view not very far from the spot, bathed in its splendour. The sorcerer took a few steps toward the Castle.

Then he feel down as his feet gave way and he fell face fist into the cold hard ground. The fall tore open his injury even further. He tried to get up but found himself without energy to do so. Even so, he managed to crawl a few more steps toward the hill slope. In his slow labored breathing, the sorcerer came to a conclusion that he was dying. Despair filled him as he still had to warn the Blessbringer Clan.

"Are you okay, sir?" a female voice asked from behind him.

The sorcerer tried to turn his body to look at the newcomer but was unsuccessful. After trying again, he finally felt his body slowly turning in the face-up position. It was then he saw a girl with a pair of hazelnut eyes kneeling by his side, looking at him with pity. He tried to tell the girl to warn his clan, but his words came out as weak croaks. Undaunted as his hope of informing the clan has come with the arrival of the girl, he used his hand to point toward the castle.

The girl looked at the castle and then back at his battered body. "You want me to carry you there?"

He weakly shook his head and formed the word 'tell' using his lips.

The girl nodded, as if understanding what he meant and said, "You want me to tell the people in the castle about what happened to you"

Happy that she has gotten the message, the sorcerer nodded again.

"Very well. I will relay the news to them," she said as she got up.

Despite having his eyesight becoming fuzzy from the loss of blood, the sorcerer maintained his gaze on her.

"By the way, sir?" the woman said as she turned toward the castle. "Wouldn't it be better if I just warned them about your murderer is coming to attack them?"

"_That would be better" _the sorcerer thought as he looked at the girl moving toward the castle. Then a thought struck him. _"Wait. How did she knew?" _As if knowing the unasked question, the girl turned toward him and raised her right hand at her shoulder level, palm facing down. A whirlpool of light began to appear under the palm. To his horror, when the whirlpool of light disappeared, he was looking at the blade that killed his companion in the girl's hand. _"Couldn't be…" _he wailed in his mind.

The girl nodded, a soft smile on her lips. "Thanks to you, I've finally located the Clan's hideout. So, a token of my gratitude, I'll tell them that it was you who revealed to me this place's location"

"_NO!" _the sorcerer wailed in his mind before unconsciousness claimed him.

"Don't worry," the girl said cheerily, "you would have plenty opportunities to grovel for their forgiveness. I'm planning to send them after you"

Three hours later, amidst the burning castle, the girl looked around her surrounding, pleased with her work. She walked along a desolated road, unaffected by the smell of the burning flesh and stench of the blood she had spilled. She finally stopped in front of the only building that was still standing. The heptagon-shaped building was pearly white in color and had numerous magic stones embedded on its walls, telling the invading girl that it was enchanted. To test what she suspected, the girl took a stone next to her and threw it at the building, smirking as the stone disintegrated before it touched. "A very intricately designed barrier that prevents time, space and dimensional invasion," she said. "Interesting"

She slashed at the building's entrance with her sword and it collapsed, granting her entrance. "But not good enough to stop my Mimei Ketsurui which have the essence of my soul inside it. As she walked inside the building, there was a lot of magical staff being aimed at her, with their owners prepared to cast their spells at any time. "Oh, my," she said, feigning surprise. "What a grand reception for me. I'm touched"

An elderly woman took a step forward. From her calm demeanor, she seemed to be the clan's leader. "What are you doing here, murderer?"

"I'm disappointed. Here I come from a faraway place to pay all of you a visit and you compare me to thieves, mercenaries and their likes?"

"Oh? And what do you call someone who comes in and started to kill indiscriminately, our uninvited guest? Or should I refer to you by your real name, Kencana?"

The girl named Kencana grinned. "Ah, so you do know me," she said while holding her sword in a reverse position, as if wanting to give it to someone. "Of course, you do know that I'm here to let you have a chance to take my sword, just like you always wanted," she said. Then Kencana's expression changed into a scowl. "However, you have to pry it from my hand"

"I'll take it, but with your life as well"

"I want to see you try"

The Blessbringer's clan leader put her hands together, making a small clapping sound. She then put her hands on the ground. Instantly a circle of magic began to appear beneath the two of them. Kencana merely had enough time to look downward before she was electrocuted by the current appearing from the ground. "It's over"

Kencana made a swiping motion and the circle disappeared. Putting her hand on her neck, she said, "You know, I prefer message to electric currents treatment to loosen up my tired muscles. Come on, Gramps, you know that it would take a lot to defeat me" Kencana put a forefinger under her chin, striking a thoughtful pose. "I'm quite surprise that you're able to skip the incantation to a spell as a complicated like that. I can see why you're the head of the Blessbringer Clan"

"Unfortunately I don't care for compliments from you," the clan head said as she and all of the Blessbringer Clan members raised their staffs.

"**Rahmat syurga menyelubungi alam, **(The heaven's grace that permeates throughout the world)

**Tanda kuasa dan kemegahanNya, **(The sign of His power and grace)

**Ya tuhan yang maha kuasa, **(O' He who is the most powerful)

**Bantu kami menentang si jahanam, **(Help us in our fight against the Damned)

**Lindungi kami dari anaiya, **(Protect us from its attacks)

**Dan musnahkan musuh ini dengan penuh seksa!"** (And inflict a torturous death on this enemy!)

A slow rumbling appeared from behind Kencana and before she could react, she found herself being crucified on a giant cross made from light. Signs of surprise on what happened were evident on her face.

The elderly sorceress walked toward the cross and raised her head toward Kencana. "Actually, we have foreseen your eventual arrival and have been prepared"

"Well, I'm certainly cross with all of you now," Kencana said before breaking into a laugh.

"Silence! Don't you know that your life is in grave danger?"

"If you think that you'll be able to kill me with this spell, let me tell you something: you're making a very big mistake"

"Of course not," the clan head said as a light halo appeared on top of Kencana.

"It's big mistake," Kencana insisted.

"We don't think so"

"**Sinar subuh menyuci kalbu, **(O' the Dawn's light that cleanses thy soul,

**Menusuk ke dalam seluruh diri, **(And pierce thy whole body)

**Dengan rahmat dan kekuasaan Mu, **(With Your grace and power)

**Biar menyinari pendosa ini"** (Let it shine on this sinner)

Starting from the halo, a pillar of light appeared and engulfed Kencana, along with the cross.

"Is it enough to kill her?" one of the sorcerers asked as he and his brethren maintained the spell.

"Don't worry. The Pillar of Holiness would continue to burn until everything is consumed in its flame"

After a few minutes, the Pillar began recede. To everyone's shock, Kencana was still standing on the floor, seemingly unharmed by the spell. "I told you that you're making a big mistake,"

Kencana said while flicking her hair

"Impossible…" her adversary uttered with disbelief.

"I must commend you for coming out with a spell that draws the energy from victim to perpetuate its attack, but you forgot that the spell can only be used to a darkness-based being. Oh you can fry a devil or it, but it wouldn't affect angels"

"You're a light being?" the clan head asked.

Kencana shook her head while smiling. "I'm similar to you" She then raised her left hand. "Let's see, what should I do now? Ah, I know! How about I show all of you an improve version of the Pillar of Holiness?"

**Dengan kuasa penjaga kekacauan, **(By the power of the of Avatar of Chaos)

**Yang merosak dan membina segalanya, **(That destroys and rebuilds everything)

**Timbullah! si Tiang Kerosakan, **(Appear! The Pillar of Chaos)

**Belengguilah dan ikatlah nyawa mereka! **(Bind and trap their life!)

A pillar made out light and shadow began to appear on each sorcerers and sorceress around her. After everyone was engulfed in their respective pillars, Kencana began to walk away. "Unlike Pillar of Holiness and Pillar of Hell, the Pillar of Chaos will destroy both the light and darkness beings" She smirked. "The best part is that it does its job slowly. Revel in your demise, Blessbringer!"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (11 November 2006)**

1. This is not an original fiction and cannot be posted at Fictionpress as it will contravene the site's rules and regulation. Wait. Come to think of it, this is an original story and seems like it doesn't have any tie-in with any copyrighted story. This is true… until I upload the first chapter (this is the prologue). So, it belongs to the fanfiction rather than fictionpress.

2. Strangely enough, this story is a planned sequel for my other Ranma story, Ever Stay Chaotic. While the ending of the former doesn't tally with this story, it would be clearer once the first chapter is written (probably starting early next year). This chapter serves as a prologue for this series. However, reading Ever Stay Chaotic is not required to understand this story as I'll try to make it as clear as possible.

3. Posting this chapter also to let me test the formatting and writing style that I would like to use for this story. For example, the spells are marked with bold lettering and italics would denote self talk or emphasis. And unlike its predecessor, in this story (or at least this chapter), I'm using a more narrative writing style (opposed to 'conversationalist' used in Ever Stay Chaotic). I would appreciate any feedback, comments and criticism about this chapter.

4. As with its prequel, this story will also feature Nabiki its main protagonist (Ranma will be the main character in the third installment... I think). However, unlike Ever Stay Chaotic, Ever Stay Alone would feature fewer COs and have a more serious storyline.


	2. The Blessbringer's curse

Kencana walked along at the smoldering ruins of what once a might bastion of the Blessbinger Clan, dragging her sword behind her. The blade, whose tip was scratching against the ground, emitted a sound similar to a screech of a beast of prey. The sound who have scared the living daylights of everyone around her; had they were still alive. As they bodies lay strewn all over the place, a smile of satisfaction grazed Kencana's beautiful but deadly face as blood trickled from a cut at her forehead. It has taken her quite some time, but she has managed to accomplish what she set out to do when she came to the place.

Blessbringer Clan has been destroyed and she had gotten her revenge.

Yet, as she traversed the area, she keep feeling that something was still there; something that was crucial to her plan. To her surprise, she found an entrance to a catacomb, hidden by a falling pillar. A burst of fireball immediately cleared the entry for her to enter. She walked along the catacomb's secret pathway until she arrived at a room. Despite the dark ambience, she could clearly make out the presence of four people inside the room. She flicked her finger and the whole place was illuminated by magical light.

Kencana grinned like a cat that ate the canary as she surveyed the two young man who were pointing their swords against her. Two pregnant women stood behind them, presumably their respective wifes.. "Well, well, well… what do we have here?" she asked almost cordially.

The room's already tense atmosphere worsened as the two men were obviously intimidated by her statement.

Despite her nonchalant demeanor, Kencana was quite interested in the two swordsmen battle stances. Despite seemingly taught in the same martial art, the two exhibits different kind of aggressiveness with their body language. The first swordsman, who had black hair, was leaning slightly away from her whereas his partner was leaning toward her. That told Kencana the purpose the swordsmen confronted her. She smiled and raised her sword at her shoulder's level. It then disappeared, surprising everyone in the room. Taking advantage in the brief drop in guard, Kencana disappeared and materialized behind the swordsmen, knocking their swords away and throwing them to the ground.

"Now that we have put our toys aside," Kencana announced cheerily, "we're going to have a nice little chat and hopefully no one will say or do something to annoy me"

Everyone cast a fearful glance at each other before turning their attention toward her.

Kencana pointed toward the swordsmen. "I'm going to ask one question to each of you. I hope that you will answer my honestly"

"Why must we answer your question?" the blonde swordsman asked back.

"A good question. I will help you get what you wish for" Upon seeing the distrusting look given to her by the two men, she laughed. "Oh, no, I'm going to help only a little bit; not all the way. But I warn you! The answer must be an honest one, and you may not persuade the other. If you do so, well, let's say that you'll live to regret it. Do we have a deal?"

"It wouldn't matter if we answer your question, would it?" the swordsman with black hair asked.

"My, my my. I maybe evil, but I do keep my promise," Kencana replied with a smile. She then turned serious and asked, "Now then, I want to know, for what reason did each of you raise your sword against me? You know that I defeated your leaders easily; yet you still embarked on the total foolishness"

Looking at the first swordsman before looking at Kencana defiantly, the blonde swordsman answered, "I, Markal Blessbringer would avenge my fallen comrades. In fact, you might as well kill all of us now, as we Blessbringer would vow upon your destruction!"

Kencana merely laughed at the bold proclamation before shifting her gaze to the other one. "How about you, sir?"

The first swordsman gave his friend a guilty look. "I'm sorry, Markal"

"What are you saying, Sandayu?" Markal asked.

"I was prepare to fight, but not in Blessbringer's name; I fight to protect my wife and our unborn child"

"Traitor!" Markal said as he tried to lunge at Sandayu only to be floating in the air helplessly.

Kencana approached Sandayu. "Are you sure that's your reason?"

"Yes" Sandayu said with determination. "As long as they are safe, it doesn't matter if my life is forfeit"

"Damn you!" Markal spat.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," The avatar of chaos said while wagging her finger. "No influencing the other party, remember? Now, how about you, Markal? Are you sure you want to kill me?"

"YES!"

"Very well, I'll give you a hand" Kencana said as she put her hand together and began to incant a spell. A magical rune appeared underneath Markal's wife and she began to glow.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY WIFE?" Markal said as he flailed in the air.

Kencana's spell lasted a full minute. "I'm casting a hex on her and her unborn child"

"DAMN YOU!"

"Don't worry," she said while holding up her hands. "Nothing will happen to the two of them. In fact, what I did was helping your family to become more powerful and gifted in magic" She smirked. "However, this gift comes with a curse. 180 moon cycles after your descendants first see the light of the world, they will have to decide by themselves whether they would dedicate their life toward killing me. If they decided to do so, two tattoos would appear on their shoulder; a moon on the left and a sun on the right. This will signify that they are indeed the cursed Blessbringer and prove their determination in stopping me"

"How about if they don't want to?" Markal's wife asked.

"Then, they will become normal human beings and loose that affinity. Sure, they can hack at it the old fashion way, but don't expect them to be even close in ability. Oh, that reminds me. The decision must be made on their own, without any coercion." Kencana raised her forefinger. "And remember, the hex would only run in the cursed bloodline"

"Why are you doing this?" Sandayu asked. "You're helping your enemy by doing this"

"No, I'm not" Kencana insisted. "I'm merely helping myself"

"And what would that be?" Markal demanded.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Remember, secrets is what makes a woman woman"

* * *

People at school knew her as the, money grabbing, capitalist loving, cold hearted Ice Queen of Furinkan, a title that she either enjoys or abhors, depending on the situation. And people have associated her with a lot of things, mostly unsavory ones. But one thing they wouldn't never associate her to being a martial artist.

And she was inclined to agree with them as she wasn't one.

She was a full blown sorceress.

Well, at least that's what she told herself as she evaded the fireball that nearly decapitated her head. She risked a glance at it, mindful of the opponent in front of her. To her surprise, the fireball seemed to hit an invisible wall and dissipated. She looked at the ground where the fireball disappeared and saw some runes. The place they were fighting at was actually a very special ring. Despite being hidden in the forest behind the Hina Spring's, the place was well known among the magical world for being a dueling place. A very powerful barrier protected the ring, allowing the contenders to fight at their best without having to worry about damaging their surrounding. The barrier would absorb almost all kind of magical power, allowing it to negate spells. It was rumored that the place was built thousands of years ago a former Blessbringer clan member, but Nabiki wasn't interested in that Blessbringer. She was more interested in the girl in front of her.

Chisa Motosuwa. Or Chisa Blessbringer, as the girl had claimed to be. One of her closest and trusted associates at Furinkan School. Nabiki cursed herself. She seldom make mistake, but when she does, she did it big time. "Honestly, I'm rather surprised that you're actually one of the Blessbringers. My mentor did tell me about your clan"

Chisa smirked. "Really? Then I guess you should know that you're no match for me. After all, your power level is so low that I'm surprised Yuko-san took you under her tutelage"

"I hardly call it tutelage, not when she's involved"

"Well, at least it explains from where you get that mercenary attitude" Chisa said as she raised her magical staff and began her incantation.

"**Gelung api yang membanteras sukma, ** (Ring of fire that destroys the body)

**Hancurkan, musnahkan semua!" **(Incinerates, disintegrates everything)

A ring of flame appeared above her staff. Chisa then pointed her staff at Nabiki and the ring sped toward the middle Tendo girl.

Nabiki ran away from the ring. To her surprise, the ring changed direction and continued to pursue her, closing the distance between them bit by bit. Nabiki waited until the last possible moment before twisting her body out of the way and it passed threw harmlessly. But before she could heave a breath of relief, it changed its direction again. Pushed to her corner, Nabiki had no choice but to face it head on. She crushed a small green orb that she was holding in her right hand and the hand began to glow. Nabiki then held it out to block the fire ring. A large explosion took place and when everything cleared, Nabiki was kneeling on the ground, breathing heavily.

"I'm really surprised you can cast a mid-level spell without having to read the incantation, Tendo-sempai"

"I'll take that as a compliment"

"Of course" Chisa smirked. "Do you mind telling me how can you cast the spell despite the low energy reserve?"

Despite having the aptitude to become a spell caster, Nabiki had a very low energy level. As a result, she had to resort to using specially prepared energy orbs to allow her to cast spells. And at that time, she had twenty more of such globes which were only sufficient to cast twenty more spells like that, which was of course, not a very good sign for her. Despite that, Nabiki presented a poker face. "Nope. You know the drill, Chisa"

"500 yen?" Chisa asked, smiling as she did so.

"Nope. A secret"

"Very well, I'll let it drop" The Blessbringer clan member then turned serious. "But tell me, Tendo-sempai, why are you helping Ranma? What's your reason?"

"Please be more specific, Chisa"

"Tendo-sempai, if you forget, let me remind you that I entered the school two years ago. I know very well what happened since he arrived here with his father. Plus, it was me whom you asked to arrange the bookings when you had him as fiancé few months ago. In fact, I would never have found out about your secret if you didn't help him" Chisa waved her staff and she was transformed into another copy of Nabiki. "As you can see, it wasn't hard for me to get him to spill the beans, especially to 'you'"

Nabiki narrowed her eyebrows. It was rather obvious that Chisa had found out about her helping to remove Ranma's nekoken as well his fiancées problems. Ukyo was adopted into Saotome family unofficially, the Amazon matriarch had nullified Shampoo's kiss of marriage and Akane had become more patient ever since Nabiki introduced her to the Todo dojo where her friend taught judo. While it may seem that she had solved the fiancées problem, it wasn't the case. She only removed some of the tension. The three girls were still pining for Ranma, well, four is she was to include Kodachi. But as she got into defensive posture, she concluded that perhaps Chisa was interested in him. "So, why do you want to know?"

"You're using him, and I want you to stop it!" Chisa said as she reverted to her original look. "You pretend to solve his problems, but yet you forced him to work for you"

"It's called the Law of Fair Compensation, Chisa, something that I operate on, unlike you"

"What you're doing isn't fair, Tendo-sempai! You tricked him!"

"Well, I have to admit, what you're doing to him is very righteous. You really care for him; that's why you do that" Nabiki said, referring to Chisa impersonating her. "You know, I found out that someone had erased his memory" Nabiki put a finger under her chin, as if thinking. "To make matters worse, that certain someone also tempered with his childhood memory; now I wonder if you have anything to do with them?"

"How do you know about that?!"

"Oh, please, Chisa. Any magic user worth his or her salt would prepare some kind of barrier against intruders. In fact, if you're lazy to cast such spells, you can just buy a ready made spell off the shelf" Nabiki smiled at Chisa's expression. "Now, Chisa, mind telling me why you're messing with his mind"

"It's different!"

"Sure, I really believe you"

Chisa was quite for a long time. "I did it in order to prevent ever powerful Kencana from claiming him"

"Kencana?"

"The wretched demoness who almost destroyed my clan eons ago" Chisa said with hate dripping in her voice.

"I'm sure I've read about stories about her somewhere…"

"She existed!"

"Existed?"

"It was due to sheer luck that she died. But the fact that Ranma is here in Nerima means that she has been reborn" Chisa's hands were fisted tightly. "I must stop her before she regain her full power and destroy the world"

Nabiki shook her head. The girl in front of her was telling her off because she was using Ranma; yet the girl was also guilty of using him. "It's just a case of the pot calling the kettle black"

"NO! Unlike you, I really like him. You wouldn't understand what my feeling, being the type of person you are!"

As Chisa was being distracted, Nabiki slowly put a hand behind her back and crushed one of the green orbs she was carrying. "Of course I can't understand your feeling. I'm not you"

"That's right. You're just a heartl…" Chisa had to stop her tirade when Nabiki suddenly attacked her with a green thunderbolt. The Blessbringer sorceress quickly held her staff in front of her and muttered some vague incantation. Nabiki's thunderbolt was met halfway by a more powerful thunderbolt that caused it dispersed. The thunderbolt then hit Nabiki, causing her to collapse to the ground. "I'm your best disciple, remember? I know all of your tricks, Tendo-sempai"

Nabiki crushed another orb in her hand and put the glowing hand on her chest.

"You're very talented, Tendo-sempai" Chisa remarked.

They continued on with the fight. Chisa was on offensive as Nabiki was reluctant to use her energy orbs.

Suddenly an idea occurred to her; one that was conceived in desperation. As she continue running to evade the attacks by Chisa, she remembered Terry, one of her martial artist friends, showing her a new technique he had perfected recently. However, the technique would consume a lot of energy, which she didn't have. She only had fourteen energy orbs left.

And it struck her.

Nabiki continued to maneuver and evade until she managed to reach the middle of the field. There, she used another orb to conjure a protective shield around her. The shield went up just in time to stop Chisa's spells from hitting her.

"Oh, interesting" Chisa observed as she prepare to cast another spell. "What are you going to do by staying there, Tendo-sempai? You know that the shield wouldn't hold up much longer"

"Yes," Nabiki said with a very serious tone, "But it gives me ample time to kill you"

"You're going to kill me? You must be joking"

The middle Tendo girl didn't reply as she brought out twelve orbs, six in each hand. She then crushed all of them and became engulfed in a very bright green light.

Her adversary didn't expect such thing to happen and was baffled.

Nabiki kneeled on one knee and put a hand on the ground. She then let her shield disperse while she used the other hand to hold the first one.

"What are you doing?" Chisa asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nabiki replied as magical runes began to appear on the battle ground. "You're very powerful and talented. None of my normal attacks can hit you"

"Of course. I can easily counter your attacks"

Nabiki grinned as her body began to glow. "Well, wise sages have said that if your enemy doesn't have any weakness, all you need to do is to create one for them"

Chisa looked down and instantly understood what Nabiki was about to do. "That's impossible! For you to cast such spell… It would take a lot of energy to cover every inch of this battlefield"

"You forget that if you add an apostrophe to the right place, the word 'impossible' would become the phrase 'I'm possible'" The glow become brighter and brighter until it was too much for Chisa to see clearly.

"Wait!"

"Power Stream" she whispered and the whole battle field was engulfed in bright green light.

When the light had abated, it could be seen that Chisa was still standing. Meanwhile, blood began to trickle down Nabiki's mouth as she breathed erratically. "What a waste of energy," Chisa commented as she walked toward Nabiki.

"How?" Nabiki asked hoarsely.

"Simple, Tendo-sempai. All I need to do to evade your attack was to step out of the ring" She stopped just a step away in front of Nabiki. "You know, I really respect and like you, Tendo-sempai. All this time that I've been assisting you at school; I really enjoy it. In fact, I really wish that you're just an ordinary school student instead of a possible obstruction"

"Do you really hate that Kencana of yours so much?"

"Yes" Chisa answered without missing a bat.

"Enough to kill me if I stand in your way?"

"Yes"

Nabiki sighed. "I feel the same way too, Chisa. I

"You mean that you really enjoy being with me?"

"That too, but what I mean," Nabiki said as she struggled to stand up, "is that you're pissing me off by sabotaging me"

Chisa cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, what brave words for someone who can't fight anymore"

A second later, the Blessbringer was thrown to the ground from the impact of a slap to her cheek.

"You're stealing my script, Chisa"

"Damn you!" Chisa said while nursing her sore cheek. "You're going to get it" she said as she raised her staff and read an incantation to unleash a very powerful fireball.

**Bebola api dari neraka, **(O' the fireball from hell)

**Kepunyaan si Naga Sakti, **(Who belong to the Magic Dragon)

**Seksa, hancurkanlah mereka **(Tortoure, kill all of them)

**Bakar musuh-musuhku sehingga mati **(Burn all of my enemies till they're destroyed)

Nabiki merely crossed her arms, waiting for the fireball that never came. "I knew that betting on myself was the right thing to do"

Chisa brought her staff close to examine it. To her shock, she discovered that it "This can't be happening!"

"Oh yes it can, Chisa. I'll let you know why you lost for free. Actually, you stand a better chance of defeating me if you stayed inside the field instead of stepping out"

"Why?"

"Simple. Didn't you remember the fact that we entered this place by a special opening?" Nabiki said as she pointed behind her.

Chisa's eyes widened as she realized what Nabiki was saying. She was so engrossed in trying to find a way to leave the place when Nabiki invoked the destruction spell that she had forgotten about the runes protecting the place. No, she remembered the runes being able to absorb magical powers; that was why she escaped through them. What she had forgotten was that the runes would also absorb any magical power in a magical user. That was why she could cast any more spell; she had exhausted her power. "You're lucky that you suddenly remembered about the runes"

"Well, I've been thinking about them since our battle starts, so it's not as much as luck as it was strategy"

"That's a lie. If that's the case, you would have used it from the beginning"

"And have you remembered about them as well?" Nabiki asked while crushing the remaining orb. "I don't think so. That would certainly cause the odd to swing in your favor" She then point her hand toward Chisa. "Any last word?"

Chisa closed her eyes and didn't move. "No. I lost. Despite me being the Blessbringer's heir, I still lost to a weak sorceress like you. I accept my defeat" She then heard a loud din and felt dirt spraying her face. She opened her eyes to see smoke coming out of the small crater not far from her head. She then turned toward Nabiki who was walking away. "Why?"

"You still owe me 32,050 yen you borrowed from me last month"

The answer caught Chisa by surprise. But then she merely smiled and closed her eyes. "34, 130 yen including interest"

"34, 250 yen," Nabiki corrected, still maintaining her pace.

"Right"

Nabiki kept walking into the forest that surrounded the battle field. She needed to return to the Hina dormitory before her family and friends notice her missing. But she only managed to walk halfway when she had to stop and kneel as her vision began to blur. Then she began to throw up uncontrollably as she felt a sharp piercing pain in her chest. Executing such a powerful spell has taken a toll on her body. But even as she was overtaken by the pain, she could feel a hand rubbing her back soothingly. While the hand didn't heal her, it has the effect of calming her; Nabiki knew that at least there was someone next to her. When the pain finally subsided enough for Nabiki to cast a small healing spell on herself, she looked at her companion and sighed. Out of everyone who had to find her in such position, it has to be Ranma. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Kasumi was worried when you didn't turn up for tea, so she sent me to search for you"

Nabiki had to suppress an urge to smile at that. Despite her oblivious and callous appearance, Kasumi was always sensitive to such matter.

"So," Ranma said while scratching the back of his head, "mind telling me what happened?"

"Yes, I mind" Nabiki said with an edge to her voice.

"Oh, okay," Ranma said, standing up as he didn't feel comfortable at the response he get. "So, can I ask you other questions, Nabs?"

The girl in front of him remained silent.

"To tell you the truth, I saw the fight between the two of you"

"Since when?"

"Enough to know about this 'ever powerful demoness Kencana' is perhaps fiancée number 101. Gee, lucky me"

"So you know about that. Well, this is the one time you can't kick your pop into the koi pond"

"I'm so screwed up," Ranma said as he threw his hands up in frustration. "Isn't it enough for me to be cursed, have multiple fiancées after me and chaos as my middle name? Maybe I better start a registrar to keep track up of my fiancées or maybe fiancés as well?"

"That does seem like a good idea," Nabiki replied mirthlessly.

"I'm trying to be spastic here…," Ranma growled.

"Sarcastic, not spastic"

"Sar… whatever" Ranma gave up and turned away, huffing. "Man, I kinda wish that I have it easy like you, Nabs"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you sure have it easy"

Nabiki closed her eyes and continued to sit on the ground, arms hugging her knees.. Ranma waited for a comment or a retort but none forthcoming as the girl in front of him remained in that position for a while. Despite the lack of response, he knew that his statement has affected her, as her ki was a swirl of contrasting colors, broadcasting various emotions she felt. It was the first time Ranma saw her in that state. Then, as sudden as it was, her ki changed back into neutral. She has put on her ice queen mask again. "Perhaps, you're right"

His curiosity piqued by her unexpected comment, Ranma approached closer. "Nabs?"

She didn't answer but stood up, facing away from him. She suddenly twirled around to face him just as the wind started to blow. Her short brown hair fluttered as dead leaves began to fall around the two of them. Nabiki held out a hand to catch one of them and brought it closer to her face before letting it fall.

Ranma swallowed nervously as he felt his heart began to beat erratically at the silent sight he was witnessing. "Nabiki…?" he whispered.

A bittersweet smile gradually blossomed on her lips. "Let's go back, Saotome-kun"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (29 November 2006) **

**1. **Here's the first chapter which follows what happened in the Ever Stay Chaotic. Now that I think of it, it would have been better to end that series with this chapter rather than the cliffhanger chapter. Oh well, it's intended. I'm sorry if some of the new readers have trouble following the story, but when (and 'if' as well) I continue with the second chapter, I'll reintroduce some of the events that took place in the Ever Stay Chaotic. Retelling everything here isn't impossible, but would certainly distract the readers.

**2. **Like I mentioned in the prologue, Nabiki is the main character in this story and this chapter shows that.

**3. **Some of you who have read Ever Stay Chaotic may notice something in this chapter and would like to ask me some questions. Please ask me through the fanfiction's PM service or email me (it's in my profile page) rather than in the review as doing so may spoil the story to others. But if you want to leave a review, please do so as I welcome it very much.


	3. Nabiki's resolve

A pillar of light appeared in the middle of a forest clearing. It then receded, leaving Kencana, Sandayu and his pregnant wife. Gesturing toward the area around them, Kencana quipped, "Here you are, you're new home"

Sandayu looked around before turning back to Kencana. "It's not that I'm ungrateful, but why do you teleport us here?"

Chuckling, the Avatar of Chaos said, "You want to stay with Markal after what you said back then? He still thinks of you two as traitors, you know"

Sandayu sadly turned toward his wife who then took his hand.

"Regrets?" Kencana asked.

"Just one. I wish that he understands my decision" Sandayu said as he clasped his wife's hand. "But maybe I'm really a traitor. After all, I don't understand why he must fight you. Yes, you killed all of them. But I saw what happened. You let them attack first, don't you?"

"My, my. How observant of you. Will you like to know why I kill your brethrens?"

"I wouldn't go back on my promise not to seek that answer"

Three seats magically appeared next to them and Kencana invited them to seat. She then materialized her red bladed katana. "You do know Mimei no Ketsurui?"

"Dawn's Tears of Blood" Sandayu said while shivering. "The blade is red in color because of the countless lives it took"

"You got the name right, but the fact wrong. It turned red because the blood of a single person. In fact, it's only today that I used it to kill"

Despite their curiosity piqued, both Sandayu and his wife kept quiet.

Kencana smiled. "Mimei Ketsurui has another name, the name used before its blade turned red. The Blade of Eternity"

"The Blade of Eternity?" Sandayu's wife asked.

"Primula!" Sandayu cautioned her wife, reminding her of their promise to ask about anything.

"It's okay," Kencana assured. "I was going to tell you about it" She held out the blade, letting the sun shine on it. "The blade can make its owner immortal. Impressive, right?"

"It sure is" Sandayu agreed.

"But at the same time, it can kill anything, even gods and demons, with it being the blade of chaos"

"So, the owner can basically become god himself"

"That's right" Mimei Ketsurui disappeared from Kencana's hand. Then an axe appeared in its place. She then handed the axe to Sandayu.

"This is?"

"Asagao, or Morning Glory. With this, you can get anything you want from this land. Consider this as my parting gift from me to the two of you"

Sandayu held the axe in his hands, testing its weight. "Anything?"

Kencana got up, smiling. "As long as you work for it. This axe wouldn't chop wood by itself, you know" She then began to walk away. "By the way, while coming to this place, I noticed some group of travelers from the mainland coming toward this island, so you two wouldn't be alone for long"

"Thank you," Sandayu said while bowing.

Kencana raised her hand. "Don't sweat it. After all, you're forgetting that I have my own agenda" She then cast a spell and was bathed in a pillar of light.

"Wait!" Primula, Sandayu's wife called out. "Can you tell us the name of this island?"

"Sure. You're currently on the Nippon Island," Kencana said while disappearing.

She reappeared in another place, in front of so many pools. "I know you're there, so come out already. I've felt your presence since I'm at the wretched clan's castle"

The fabric of space behind of her was ripped by a clawed hand. The rift then got larger as a three horned demoness appeared out of it. "As impressive as usual, Kencana"

"You know I hate it when someone sneaks up on me, Musna"

"I'm curious with you, Kencana. I don't understand why you broke off your sword and give a part of it to that couple"

"You're an idiot, do you know that? That's why you were unsuccessful in your bid to take over the Infernal Throne from my sister. It's for insurance"

"Insurance?"

"Yes, insurance. By breaking it up, I'm ensuring that there would be no one who'll be able to stop me when the time comes for me to carry out my plan" Kencana then walked to one of the pools and cut her finger, letting her blood drip into it. "Before you ask me, I might as well explain it to you. All of these pools will be cursed except for this one; it is tainted with my blood and will call out for a soul to enter it. Yes, a very special soul indeed"

"What will happen if he or she wouldn't enter?" Musna asked as she wasn't convinced.

"He would, as it is preordained that he will do so. Want to know something?"

"Sure"

"The boy would be the couple's descendant"

Musna raised her eyebrows. "That's surprising"

Kencana began to walk away from the pools and toward Musna, smiling, barring her fangs. "Now, have you ever wondered why I didn't kill you despite you being an annoyance to me?"

The three horned demoness was about reply when she caught hold of herself. Come to think of it, it was rather strange that Kencana didn't kill her. She had tried to ambush the avatar of chaos to take Mimei Ketsurui in order to kill Hild, the queen of the infernal realm. However, she was easily defeated. "I don't know"

"Because you're no challenge at that time, it's an insult to kill you" Kencana said while handling a bracelet to Musna. "Here"

"What is this?" Musna said while taking the item.

"A bracelet"

"What I mean is what do I do with it?"

"You want to have Mimei no Ketsurui for your own self, don't you? All you need to do is to wait until I've scattered the remaining pieces and then collect them yourself"

Musna gave a throaty laugh. "And why should I wait until then? I can just go back to the couple's place and killed them to take that axe"

"And causes me to guard the other parts?"

"You can just hold on them and it will still be the same"

"I wouldn't. Not if my plan is to come to completion. So be patient, and you may have a chance to kill my sister"

The three horned demoness nodded. "I'll take your word for it, since you never break your promise. In return I shall do you a favor"

"Just don't appear in front of me from now on. Do that and I'll kill you on the spot"

Musna smiled. "Very well. But remember, the next time I appear in front of you is to kill you with your own sword" She then disappeared.

"Fool," Kencana muttered. "If you think that my sister will let you succeed, you have another thing coming" She smiled, "Right, Hild, my dear big sister?"

A shadow walked out of Kencana's back and began to take the form of another demoness. "You also know that I was following the two of you"

"Of course"

"Why did you give her something that can kill me, your own sister?"

"Because it's fun to do so"

Hild crossed her arms, her face showing signs of dissatisfaction. "With you as my sister, who needs enemies?"

"I'm being fair to both you and Kami-chan, sister"

"Whatever" Hild walked to side of the tainted pool and looked into it. "I see that you're very confident of your plan's success," she commented.

Kencana shook her head. "There's always chaos in order and order in chaos" She closed her eyes as an image of a girl came to mind, one with a short helmet-shaped brown hair. Kencana grinned and thought to herself, _"My plan may fail because of you, my little kitty?"_

* * *

_A seven year old Nabiki, whose waist length braided hair bounced in the wind as she ran, approached her mother who was sitting on a bench. The young girl had a very large happy smile despite her soiled dress. "Mother," she cooed as her mother pulled her into an embrace. _

"_My, my, Nabiki. You have gotten your clothes dirty. This is a surprise" Kimiko Tendo said as she rubbed her daughter's head fondly. "You normally don't like getting dirty" She then brought out a tissue to wipe some grime off her daughter's cheeks. _

_Nabiki turned toward the sandbox. Kasumi and Akane were there, playing with some neighborhood kids. "Well, today is a bit special" Despite being young, Nabiki was already particular about her appearance. That was why she didn't like to play in the sandbox or any games that will ruin her cloth._

"_Well, what happen, Na-chan?" Kimiko enquired. _

_Nabiki played with her fingers, seemingly unsure of whether she should tell or not._

"_Come now, you can tell me," Kimiko leaned toward her daughter. "It will be our secret," she whispered conspiratorially, knowing full well that Nabiki cannot resist such prodding. Nabiki told her about what happened while Kimiko listened attentively while looking at the pendant on her daughter's chest. "That's rather interesting, Na-chan," she said after Nabiki had finished. "I'm rather happy for you," she said while looking at the clear blue sky above the two of them before turning her attention toward Kasumi and Akane. _

"_Would you tell me about that too, Na-chan?" an unfamiliar voice caused Nabiki to turn her head. A very mature and beautiful woman with waist length midnight raven hair was looking at her with interest. The woman was wearing a long dark dress that hugged her ample figure, reminding Nabiki of a scary witch in one of the western movies shown on the television. "I'll keep it a secret as well"_

"_NO!" Nabiki screamed._

Nabiki woke up, gasping for breath. She looked around to see that she was in her room, on her own bed. The room was slightly illuminated as the sun's morning rays peeked through the closed curtains. A quick glance at the clock told her that it was 6.30 a.m. She lied back on her breath, letting out a relieved breath. It's been a while since she last had that peculiar dream where she first saw Yuko, her mentor in the field of magic. It was true that she was afraid of Yuko when they first met, but she has gotten over that fear. What made it strange was that she couldn't remember what she had told her mother at that time; yet it seemed very important to her. She put a hand on her head. Why was it so important to her? Almost instinctively, her hand moved to her chest where the pendant used to be.

She closed her eyes. It has been a while since she thought about her deceased mother; recalling countless memories they shared together with her sisters. She could still remember the day her father came and held all of the sisters together, telling them that their mother wasn't going back. While Kasumi and Akane cried, Nabiki was silent. She wanted to, but somehow she felt resignation and acceptance. But the kids around her age didn't understand such thing. They called her names when they found out that she didn't cry during her mother's funeral. They also started to move away from what they called as an emotionless robot.

Hand still on her head, Nabiki sighed once more and got up. She then walked toward the dressing table, looking at her reflection and gave a small smile. She wasn't disturbed by such a cold treatment. What mattered for her was that she did what she deemed as right. Her stomach growled, as if complaining. Nabiki quickly prepared herself. When she got down, she was treated to the then normal display of martial food stealing by Ranma and his father.

Kasumi who was handing a bowl of rice to Akane was the first to greet her. "Good morning"

"Morning. Black please," Nabiki said.

"Here you are," Kasumi said as she handed her sister a mug of steaming coffee. "By the way, sis…"

Nabiki who had already begun to drink the coffee raised her eyebrows.

Kasumi pulled out an envelope from the pocket in front of her apron and handed it to Nabiki. "This letter's for you". She then turned to Soun. "By the way, father, tonight I'll be coming home a bit late. I already told Nabiki to buy take out"

Before Soun could overreact as usual, Genma whispered something to his friend. The Tendo patriarch nodded. "Have fun, Kasumi"

Nabiki noticed that Akane was rolling her eyes and surmised that her younger sister was thinking about the same thing: both fathers were probably hoping that Nabiki would buy them liquor so that they can drink themselves silly. She then gave nodded at Kasumi. Kasumi has being seeing Tofu, and the young doctor cum chiropractor was beginning to become acclimatized to being near her. He no longer run across the town with a skeleton on his back; he ran across the town with Kasumi on his back. Plus, his spectacles no longer fogged, but Nabiki had noticed some smoke coming out of his ears on few occasions. She was happy with the development between the two of them as it's time for Kasumi to focus more on her own future. Turning toward the two fathers, Nabiki said, "No sakes or beers included. You have to pay for them on your own"

Soft whimper and whine coming the two of them were drowned by the sound of Ranma eating the food he stole from them.

"Ranma," Akane said sternly.

"Sorry, Akane" Ranma said as he began to chew his food slower.

Mentally congratulating Akane for being able to teach Ranma to eat at normal speed, Nabiki looked at the envelope.

Three hours later,

Yuko, dressed in a long flowing robe, sat in a dimly lit room. She sipped the tea prepared for her by her assistant, a thin bespectacled high school student who stood next to her. "The tea's excellent as usual, Watanuki," she said as she set the cup down. "I'm surprised that you also know how to prepare Western tea"

Watanuki looked at another cup set across the table as steam wafted from it and said, "Is it okay to prepare her tea so early? It'll get cold"

Yuko's eyes slowly drifted in another direction. "No. Just right," she said as Nabiki walked into the room.

The middle Tendo girl took her seat across Yuko's and Watanuki took it as his cue to leave the room.

"Pretty helpful, isn't he?" Nabiki commented.

"Well, both you and Watanuki are unique in your respective way," Yuko said. She then gave a mysterious gaze at Nabiki. "You had the same dream last night?"

Nabiki nodded. She had worked for Yuko for a long time that she had learned not to be surprised to the latter's ability to know about many things.

Yuko made a disappointed sound. "Am I that scary?"

"Yes"

"That's a mean thing say, Na-chan" Yuko said, pretending to be upset.

"Don't call me that," Nabiki said. "I'm here because of this," she continued as she held up the envelope in her hand. "I know that my mother gave her life to erect a very powerful barrier to protect Nerima ten years ago. But I didn't know about this arrangement my mother had with you"

Yuko brought out a rectangular box out of the fold of her robe, put in on the table and pushed it toward Nabiki. "Yes. Kimiko told me that she's concerned that she wouldn't be able to give the box to you personally. You know as well as I do about her health condition at that time"

Nabiki nodded said as she took the box. She softly touched the box, caressing the intricate sakura pattern carved on it. Apart from the gracing the box with its presence, the sakura pattern also told her a hidden message her mother wanted her to know; it was some kind of a warning. It wasn't that her mother didn't like the flower. In fact, she really liked it. But the sakura's fall, which can only be seen in autumn, signified passing away or mortality.

Yuko looked at a tea stalk floating in her cup. "You do know about Nerima being a cursed land?"

"Kencana," Nabiki said.

"I see the Blessbringer girl told you a bit about her" Yuko rested her head on her hand and looked at Nabiki lazily. "Do you believe about Kencana?"

"Do you, Dimension Witch?"

"A river flowing through the land will nourish and corrode it at the same time, despite being imperceptible from far away"

"Whether she exist or not, she had left her marks on us"

"Everything leaves its mark, whether it's a material or immaterial thing, reality or illusion, what we saw…"

"Or what we dream," Nabiki finished.

"So, the question you're supposed to ask is 'what kind of mark does Kencana leave in _your_ world?'"

"Don't you know?"

"Na-chan, let me remind you that I still don't know why you removed the cat spirit from that boy. I would have congratulated you for being able to carry out such a delicate procedure, but you must remember that what you did would have some kind repercussion"

"I know," Nabiki said quietly.

Yuko took a sip from a cup before continuing, "Our respective paths are almost parallel now, Na-chan. Once that happens…"

"We will go on to fulfill our respective destiny"

"Well said" Yuko said seriously. "All right, I'll tell you what's in the box. It is a gift from your mother for you. She wished it for me to take care of it so that I can give it to you"

"I see," Nabiki said. Yuko had told her with so little words that her mother had asked for Yuko to take care of the box _and _her as well. The Dimensional witch had to, in order to be able to give it to her. "That's why I have to slave for you, doing weird errands and biddings"

"Of course, if that's what you want to call it. For me, I'd call it training"

It was training for her, Nabiki admitted to herself. Despite being in so many life threatening situations, she had persevered and learnt so many things that would be crucial for her to stay alive; at the very least, being under Yuko's servitude taught her to develop her Ice Queen persona. It has proved itself important when making business deals and propositions. "So, any idea what's inside this box?"

Yuko laughed, covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "You really think I'm that dishonorable, Na-chan?" she teased.

"Of course not. It's worse than that," Nabiki replied smoothly.

"That's very comforting to hear. As for the box, don't worry, I haven't peek in yet. I have no interest in shouldering burdens that aren't mine to begin with" Yuko then leaned toward Nabiki and asked, "So how about you, Na-chan? You don't have to open the box, you know"

Nabiki's fingers that were on the box tensed.

"I'm sure your mother will understand if you don't want to accept the responsibility, no matter what it is. In fact, one of the reasons why she asked me to keep it is because she wanted you to make that choice by yourself"

"I know that, Yuko-san. However, I have to accept it"

"Because you feel responsible?"

"Yes, there's no running from the fact. However, the main reason is because I want to"

Yuko smiled and leaned back. "As expected from you, Tendo Nabiki"

Nabiki's eyes moved toward Watanuki who entered with a tray containing a fresh pot of tea and two plates of food. "Pain d'epices" she commented.

"Spice bread, a fitting desert for quite an animated discussion, don't you think? While you're gifted in mixing explosive concoctions or produce industrial-strength toxicant and poisons in my kitchen, Watanuki's food, well, is more palatable" Yuko stopped talking as Watanuki set the teapot and their food on the table. "You have to say, he's a good catch," she said, earning a blush from the bespectacled guy. "But a bit shy"

Nabiki waited until Watanuki left the room. "It's a relief to know that you're interested in men instead of in women" She took a bite out of the bread. "This is pretty good. So when you're going to lie down with him?" she said in a not so subtle jibe.

Her hand supporting her head, Yuko shrugged. "I don't know. Wouldn't be fun having to plan to take his virginity. It has to be spontaneous, in the heat of the moment kind of thing. It would be interesting to see how much I have to teach him before he takes the initiatives"

Knowing very well her mentor's quirky personality and behavior, Nabiki continued eating her food without commenting back.

As she smiled and raised her cup, Yuko said, "That pain d'epices will cost you, Na-chan"

Nabiki closed her eyes as she continued chewing the morsel. "I guess it's fair enough"

Then in an instant, Yuko's expression was replaced by a playful one, one that made her look like a gushing teenager. "So, as your payment, you will tell me your opinion regarding him"

"I did tell you that I think that he's pretty helpful"

"Hm? Who's talking about Watanuki?"

Meanwhile, in a place quite far away, Ranma sneezed. "Shit, someone must have been talking about me again," he said to his companion, Ukyo.

Ukyo looked at her 'older brother' and wondered who was talking about him. Probably Shampoo was planning to get Ranma to go out with her on a date or Akane thinking about giving Ranma more tutoring on social interactions. And Ranma, being the gentleman he was would accommodate their requests. The okonomiyaki chef wished that Nabiki had stayed out of the fiancée feud. Now, Ukyo couldn't use her trump card, the yattai dowry, as Nabiki had ensured that her family's honor would be satisfied by getting the Saotome family to adapt her into their family should Ranma chose someone else. Of course, that also could be said about the Amazon as Cologne agreed to lift Shampoo's kiss of marriage due to some 'persuasion' from the mercenary girl.

Strangely enough, Nabiki didn't seize that advantage to set up Ranma with Akane, but instead nullified their fathers' promise. She also managed to settle with Ranma's other fiancées and fiancés. Heck, thanks to her, Kuno didn't want anything to do with his girl part, accusing it of being a wretched succubus. In the end, Ranma wasn't beholden to any marriage promise. Sometime Ukyo wished that she could return things to the way they were. At least she could claim that Ranma had to be with her because she was his fiancée, but now she had to compete with many girls vying for his attention.

Plus, the old Ranma was easier to manipulate.

Ever since Ranma started working as Nabiki's assistant, he began to become more… assertive. It was harder to get him to do anything he didn't want to; tears might work, but Nabiki had warned against using it often as Ranma may become immune to it. So far, Nabiki was the only one able to truly control him, due to some unknown pact between the two of them. That thought brought Ukyo to another question.

What was Nabiki's intention?

While Ukyo was inclined to agree that getting Ranma to work for her doing many chores was better than taking his pictures or setting up fight betting pools, Ukyo wondered whether it was that was what Nabiki wanted. If Ukyo was in her position, she would have taken that advantage to make Ranma hers. But that was her. Perhaps Nabiki had someone else in mind. After all, the Tendo girl was quite 'close' with Kuno.

Or maybe not.

"What are you thinking about, Ucchan?" Ranma asked as they continued walking.

Shaking her head, Ukyo answered, "Nothing"

"You're sure?" Ranma asked, seemingly unconvinced.

Spying the bracelet on Ranma's wrist, Ukyo quickly said, "Well, you see, I've always wondered why you started wearing that bracelet"

The pigtailed martial artist looked at the bracelet. "Oh, this? Nabiki got it for me to enable me to increase my power by forcing me to fight at my opponent's power level. She said that it's quite expensive, but sometimes I wonder whether she got it from a bargain bin"

"I see" As usual, Nabiki was involved.

Ranma put his hands behind his head. "I wonder what mother will cook for us"

Despite being informally adopted in Saotome's family, in case Ranma changed his mind and wanted to marry her, Ukyo didn't stay with the family, preferring to stay at her own restaurant instead. At first, Nodoka insisted that she stayed with her, but Ukyo pointed out that if Ranma can stay at Tendo's residence, then she could stay at other place too. After all, with Genma began to return home to be with Nodoka more and more often, it was inappropriate to disturb them. "By the way, Ran-chan, why are we coming here again? Besides visiting our mother, I mean"

There was a splashing sound and Ranma transformed from being Ukyo's brother to being her sister.

"Hey! Watch out where you point that thing!" Ranma shouted at a myopic man who accidentally sprayed her with water while watering plants. As the man apologized, she groused. "Geez, I sometime wonder where people put their eyes" Ranma then turned toward Ukyo, "Oh sorry. Where were we? Ah, yeah. We're going to her house to pick up the Saotome Blade"

Ukyo felt fear coursing through her veins. "Are you saying that…"

"No, no, no" Ranma interrupted. "The suicide pact scroll was destroyed by mom, remember?"

"Then, why are we picking up the sword?"

Ranma shrugged. "Now, that I don't have any answer. All I know is that Nabiki wanted it"

"Maybe she wants to pawn it?" Ukyo said.

Ranma shook his head. "Couldn't be"

"But I don't think mom will give the blade that easily"

"That's why she sent me," Ranma said while sighing.

They finally reached the Saotome's residence and the door was opened by a smiling Nodoka.

An hour later, Yuko was standing at the door of her shop with her arms folded, while she watched Nabiki began to walk out of its compound with the small box with her. "Kimiko… seems like your daughter is going to do it" Yuko then unfolded her arms and opened one of her hands, revealing a beautiful pendant. "For her to offer this, her soul, to get her wish granted, she's very serious indeed" She then gave a thin-lipped smile. "I'm sorry, Kimiko my old friend. But as dictated by my agreement with Nabiki, I wouldn't stop her, just as she wishes"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (14 December 2006) **

1. This chapter is what I call a 'self writing' chapter. I certainly didn't have much of a problem writing it. That's why I upload it now despite the fact that I'm supposed to start next year.

2. Now, for those who haven't read Ever Stay Chaotic, at least to the part where Nabiki disappeared into the other dimensions, you might want to reconsider _not_ reading the story. Somehow, I feel that knowing about what happen in ESC may somewhat cause the story's atmosphere to be slightly different, probably because you may know how the story will develop. Like I said in the earlier chapters, I tried to make this story as independent as possible from the ESC, and I believe that it's pretty adequate so far.

3. Actually, I wonder, with you 150++ readers reading up to chapter 2 (an estimate based the review counts; may be lower than that), what kind of story do you expect? Surely by the end of this chapter, the majority of you have formed some kind of expectation for this story. Maybe you expect Ranma to end up with any of his fiancées or for him to get cured...


	4. The beginning of tomorrow's end

"Revenge," Kencana answered simply when asked by Hild about what she was doing. "Simple, right?"

Hild. the leader of the Infernal realm shook her head. "It's not that simple, considering the fact that you already achieved it. You wiped out a whole clan of magic users, despite the fact that their numbers are already dwindling"

"Come now, you shouldn't complain. I remember you not liking the fact that they were in abundance a few hundreds ago"

"Yes, but heaven will not look favorably at this matter"

Kencana was tracing so fme symbols in the air when Hild spoke and promptly stopped what she was doing, turning toward the demoness with a surprise look. "Never thought that you really care about what Kami-chan thinks about you, Sis"

"Of course, not. I'm just concerned about you, that's all"

"Or are you worried that your ass-kissing minions will die if I kill those from heaven?" 'Doublet Accord', signed by both the Heaven and Infernal Realm rulers stipulated that if any Heaven or Infernal realm inhabitants lost his or her life, another one from the other side would automatically lose his or her life as well. "Kami-chan may be annoyed with me killing his beloved worshippers, but I don't think he want to risk it. Besides, he's the ever dutiful older brother, right?"

Reluctantly, Hild nodded as it was as Kencana had said. God wouldn't attack Kencana without a very compelling reason as he knew that Kencana was almost at par with his power. And even if he defeats her, Kencana would probably something up her sleeve. Hild could still remember what happened when Kencana ran amok. Heaven's Punitive Squad was sent to deal with her and was instantly defeated. Then the avatar of chaos took it upon herself to show displeasure at Heaven's kingdom. She had caused a major uproar there and half of the inhabitants were either poisoned or injured before God could stop her. Even then, He had to let her go as only she could heal those poisoned by her. From then on, both Heaven and Infernal Realm tread cautiously around her and decrees had been issued for all gods, goddesses, demon and demoness to leave her alone, which they did. From there on, both Heaven and Infernal Realm kingdoms didn't have much problem with Kencana as she was happy enough to be left to her own device. "You're right"

"As always"

Then Hild remembered that she hadn't asked Kencana about something that crossed her mind a while before. "You haven't told me about the revenge you're seeking. Blessbringer's finished, if not for the fact that you purposely spared the four of them. Who's next?" Hild asked as she eyes the avatar of chaos finished casting a spell.

An ethereal puma appeared next to Kencana, and she petted it. It purred and rubbed its body against her foot. "There's still one left"

However, Hild wasn't really paying attention as her eyes were transfixed on the puma. "It's that…"

"Yes, a part of his soul," Kencana said fondly as she kneeled and kissed the ethereal being.

It was rare for Hild to see her sister displaying any sign of affection and she finally understood why Kencana was affected when _he_ was killed. But the question that boggled her mind: who did it? And why? Although she thought that the Blessbringer Clan was the one responsible, it didn't seem to be the case, as suggested by Kencana. Besides, her sister was sadistic and would certainly enjoy torturing his killers.

"Okay, my love, it's time for you to go," Kencana said gently to the ethereal puma which nodded in understanding. It then flew off, leaving Kencana and Hild. Kencana waved, as a genuine tear rolled down her cheek. She used the back of her hand to wipe it away as she turned toward Hild, saying, "It will seek his soul when the soul's ready"

"What will happen then?"

"Oh, you will know when it happens. I will be there as well, to help him and together we will achieve my ultimate plan of revenge"

Hild flashed her a predatory smile. "I don't think that it would be easy, not when I can just stop you"

"Why do you want to do that?"

"No reason, except like you said just now, for fun"

Kencana laughed, hiding her gaff using her hand. "Are you sure you can do that, Hild, my dear old sister? Do you think haven't I haven't put in place several insurances to ensure that you wouldn't interfere?"

"Oh really?"

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. You of all people should know that I don't like to lie. By the way, you have met Kami-chan recently, right? What do you think of his new accessories? Brill, right?"

Hild wanted to smack her head. How could she didn't think much about the items God were wearing when she met Him? She had simply dismissed them as limiters to keep His power under control, similar to those she wore. From the way Kencana mentioned about the items, one of them must be some kind of a trap which she can easily trigger, probably to kill Him. But if He died, Hild would die as well due to Hild being His Doublet partner. "You do play dirty, do you know that?"

Noticing the frown on her sister's face, Kencana held her hands. "Hey, he offered himself in exchange of me giving the antidote to those who were poisoned despite me planning to heal them for free. Who am I to refuse? And talking about dirty, who are you to say that I'm playing dirty? Have you forgotten who you are?"

"If it wasn't for the fact that you have my life on the line I would have killed you here and now," Hild said through gritted teeth.

Kencana held her hands wide apart, in a gesture inviting for an attack on her. "I love you too," Seeing that Hild didn't make her move, Kencana moved toward her side and patted her back. "But don't worry. I have no need for it as long as you and Kami-chan butt out of my plan"

"Really?" Hild asked, unconvinced.

"Sure. Oh, by the way, I also told Kami-chan that I'll be reborn with the knowledge of both of you and the spell to kill him, so please stay away from my future reborn as well"

"You sure took a lot of time to plan for this" Then Kencana realized that something was off. "Wait… future reborn?"

Kencana chuckled. "Yes"

"You're immortal"

"But that doesn't mean that I couldn't be killed. Come, let's go" she said as she began to walk.

"Where?"

"To the place"

"What place?"

"Come on, Sis. You don't really think that I wouldn't know about the universe's axis of stability degenerating? I feel so insulted. I'm Chaos, after all. I'll surely know if something's out of place"

Hild narrowed her eyes.

"Actually you're here to convince me to sacrifice myself to restore the balance" Kencana laughed at Hild expression changing into shock. "I know you very well. It's all right. I'll do it"

The queen of Infernal Real bowed. "Thank… thank you, sister"

Kencana laughed, waving it off. "Don't mistake me. I neither care about both of you nor the fate of the universe. I'll be doing it because I want a place for his soul to reborn"

* * *

Ever ready in her fighting posture, Shampoo felt that something wasn't right with her adversary. Even if she was using her bonborri, she wasn't sure that she should take the person in front of her lightly. However, that didn't mean that she wouldn't win the battle. Besides experience, she also had few tricks up her sleeves.

"Are you ready?" Cologne, who was sitting from the sideline asked, looking at the both contenders. When she had opened the Nekohanten, the wise Amazon matriarch had an underground gymnasium built underneath the restaurant for her, Shampoo and Mousse to train. While she didn't want the challenger to find out about the place, she was didn't want anyone to watch apart from herself to watch the battle as it would reveal Shampoo's current skill level. Cologne had to be wary ever since she found out that the middle Tendo girl had been collecting data on every martial artist in Nerima. "FIGHT"

As the martial artists in front of her fought, Colognr watched, while her hand idly produced a small fireball. When Ranma accidentally told her about the magical bracelet Nabiki gave him, Cologne took it upon her to learn about the middle Tendo girl. The night she was spying on Nabiki, she was only expecting to discover that Nabiki was only a 'hobbyist' magician, knowing few spells. That would put the girl on par with some of the so called 'modern day witch' that could be found in some western countries, or shamanic healers, also known as miko, Taoist priests, dukuns and many others.

What she discovered blew off her mind.

Judging from breadth of knowledge displayed by Nabiki, Khu Lon suspected that the girl knew and had the skill to cast a moderately powerful spell, one that could even defeat her instantly. But despite aptitude, Nabiki has a very weak ki, which made the elder Amazon wondered why did someone took Nabiki as an apprentice. Even Akane's ki was a few times more than her sister's. But despite that Nabiki remained a worthy adversary. It seemed that the she has learnt the Amazon's laws and customs, probably from the book Shampoo accidentally dropped during one of her earlier incursion into the Tendo house. It was from the book that Nabiki found out about the kiss of marriage cannot be applied outside the Amazon village and the real reasoning behind what seemed to be a barbaric law. Because of that Cologne reluctantly rescind the kiss of marriage; Nabiki had promised not to interfere with Shampoo's pursuit of Ranma as long as she doesn't resort to coercion methods.

The elder Amazon chuckled. The young one certainly has covered her base by ensuring that her sister had a chance as well.

Meanwhile Shampoo executed a summersault in the air, ending with a snap kick aimed at her opponent's head. To her shock, her opponent simply moved to her side, grabbed her body. Then Shampoo found herself airborne once more. She quickly twisted her body in order to land safely. When the tip of her foot touched the wooden floor, she had to jump away as a punch was aimed at her face. After she hadput the distance between herself and the opponent, Shampoo smiled and said in a perfect, but heavily accented Japanese, "Persistent and aggressive people would be hated"

"Really?" her opponent said while getting into a battle position. "I don't know that you care about your face that much"

"Oh, of course," Shampoo replied. "I don't want to end up looking like you, Tendo Akane. I prefer to be cute"

Akane narrowed her eyebrows. "If you think you can bait me, let me assure you that you're facing the new Tendo Akane"

"Oh, how's the new Tendo Akane's culinary skill?"

"That's a low blow, Shampoo"

"Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing"

"Oh yeah?"

Shampoo rushed toward the waiting Akane while smiling. The Tendo girl had certainly gotten better. It was obvious that her sensei was a good teacher. While Akane was still nowhere near Shampoo's level, her defensive moves were repelling every physical attacks Shampoo could throw at her. Not that the Amazon girl minded. After all, she could improve her skill by sparring with Akane. Plus, she could try the new attacks she had learned as well. Akane wasn't the only one who was learning new martial arts. While she knew that the martial art Akane was studying emphasized on defense, the one she was studying, albeit reluctantly, focused more on offense. "Yeah" She raised her fist. "Ready or not, here I come!" Shampoo cried out while running toward her opponent at full speed.

Akane shifted into a counter position, ready to catch Shampoo's fist.

Shampoo grinned. As she had expected, Akane was still inexperienced in a real fight. _'No matter'_, she decided. She would have a chance to try one of her new techniques. Shampoo spun her body once in order to throw off Akane's timing. She then lunged toward the Tendo girl with a fist leading the way.

The move caught Akane off guard and she only had time to hold out her arms in front of her to block the attack. However, the sheer momentum of Shampoo's attack still threw her away. Gritting her teeth, Akane got up quickly in case Shampoo attacked again. "Seems like I'm not the only one who learned new moves"

"Thanks to your ever mercenary sister"

"Oh, then I guess the fee isn't that cheap"

"Of course"

Akane shifted into an offensive stance, surprising both Shampoo and Cologne. "Are you ready to annul the kiss of marriage?" she asked confidently.

"Ai ya! I'm looking forward to you handing over Husband, gift-wrapped," Shampoo said while smiling gleefully. Everyone, except Genma and Soun, knew that all of the marriage contracts and promises to Ranma had been made void, no thanks to Nabiki's interference. Shampoo still didn't know what the middle Tendo girl said to her great-grandmother to annul the kiss of marriage, but to her, it didn't matter. She liked Ranma and would pursue him in a normal way.

"Really? I don't think Ranma would appreciate being dragged off to your village"

"You're not Ranma" Of course, Shampoo kept an ace to herself. While the Amazon law decreed that she brings her husband back to the village, there was a loophole to circumvent that ruling and she wasn't really reluctant to use it. After all, Shampoo was a jealous woman. She didn't really mind sharing her husband with one or two women, but the whole village? She didn't think so. After all, she wouldn't like it if those shriveled prunes like her great-grandmot…, _correction, _ respected elders would like to 'borrow' her husband. "So are you going to attack or are you going to bore me to death?"

Akane dashed toward Shampoo at the same time the Amazon began her sprint. They traded few punches and kicks. Using her left hand, Akane tried to chop Shampoo's shoulder but the latter sidestepped while trying to kick her right midsection. Akane quickly raised her right knee to block the incoming kick. She then used the momentum to move five steps away from Shampoo.

"Oh, you're on the offensive now?"

"Heh, you've seen nothing yet" Akane rushed and executed a kick aimed at Shampoo's legs. While the Amazon could have evaded it easily with her speed, she purposely readjusted her movement speed to match Akane's so that they would be able to fight based on skill. Because of that, she had to drop into a squat position and block the kick with her elbow. Shampoo then grabbed Akane's leg and then tried to sweep the other leg. To her surprise, Akane twisted her body so that her body was momentarily off the floor and used the free leg to kick the hand holding the other leg. Even as Shampoo was forced to release the leg, she kicked the freed leg up so that Akane would be off balance. However Akane quickly put one of her hands on to the floor to stabilize her body and then propelled her body out of Shampoo's other kick.

"You're just lucky," Shampoo said as she rushed toward Akane. They exchanged blows, with both sides remaining unscathed. However, despite Shampoo matching Akane's power and speed, she was at an advantage due to the fact that her well-train body could absorb more damage than Akane's. Of course, if Akane had undergoes similar training, the Amazon warrior wouldn't be so sure about who will win the match. As Akane wiped some sweat off her eyebrows, Shampoo continued, "Perhaps it's time to end this"

"Heh. As you wish. I will end this with my new technique"

"Interesting," Shampoo said as she balled her right hand and focused her chi there. "You're not the only one who has a new trick. I'll show you the attack that I have been saving until now" Her right fist began to giving off yellow glow. **"KOUKEN! **(TIGER FIST!**)"** she shouted as she hurled a yellow projectile.

The yellow ki projectile was supposed to hit Akane, but it collided with a blue ki wave and exploded. The explosion threw both fighters off the floor.

"The match is a draw!" Cologne announced.

"But great grand-mother…" Shampoo protested.

"We can still go on," Akane added.

Cologne shook her head. "It's the same even if both of you unleashes your super deadly art"

Both Akane and Shampoo shared a look, surprised that the other party had another move left.

Pretending not to see the exchange, Cologne continued, "Besides, I don't want the 'Nekohanten Dojo' to be damaged by your attacks"

"Nekohanten Dojo?" Akane enquired. "But I thought that Nekohanten is a restaurant"

Cologne and Shampoo rolled their eyes. "We have your sister to thank for that," Cologne said drolly.

Shampoo got up, moved toward Akane and gave a hand. "Nice match, yes?"

Akane smiled took the hand. "Yes"

"You certainly have improved," Shampoo complimented. She then grinned, pulled Akane closer and whispered to her ears, "But you still have a lot go regarding your front"

"Frontal attacks?"

Shampoo glanced at Akane's breasts very briefly. "Yes, frontal attack. You're still lagging behind me and Ukyo in that aspect"

"So can you help in that?" Akane asked, still not understanding what Shampoo meant.

"Sorry, I wouldn't. After all, we're rivals, aren't we?"

Akane blinked, confused.

That night,

Nabiki was lying on her bed, reading comic while munching potato chip when she raised her eyebrows. "Hmm… seems like it's a bit hot here" She then shifted her position so that she was on her side. She took the collar of her pajamas and unbuttoned the topmost button, revealing a bit of her cleavage before continuing her reading. After a few minutes more, she changed her position once more, this time unbuttoning the lowermost button. After she did that, she realized something. "Hey, since I've unbuttoned two of them already, why don't I just unbutton all of them and get rid of my pajamas? Wearing bra and underwear in my room is okay because I'm alone right now.

She had to sigh when red droplets began dropping on the floor. "Saotome-kun, please remember to wipe off your blood afterwards. I don't want Akane or Kasumi to enter my room later and arrive to a different conclusion"

Ranma dropped his Umisenken cloaking, with one hand pinching his nose. "How do you know it was me?" he asked nasally.

"Look, didn't we have a similar situation earlier on?"

"Yes, but you didn't explain how you knew about me being here"

"Since we're in an enclosed room, the air current is quite still. So your movement caused the air to shift a bit. I noticed that because I wasn't moving. Besides, the sound of potato chip breaking is a bit different than fifteen minutes ago. You entered the room through the window five minutes ago, didn't you?"

"Sound of potato chip breaking?"

"When I took a bite out, it would make a crunching sound. The sound will bounce differently in different room setups. Different acoustics, as they referred to it" Upon seeing Ranma's confused look, she sighed "A neutral ki would change form when you focus it in different parts of your body, right? It's something like that. A sound will change depending on the environment"

"Oh," Ranma uttered. "Wait, you know about that as well?"

"Don't sweat the small stuff" Actually, she had another way of finding out that Ranma entered her room. She had placed a barrier using her Shinnokokuei. A defensive device that allowed her to project a barrier around her that would protect against various physical, ki, magic and illusionary attacks; it will draw her own power at the point of negation. "So, why are you here in my room unannounced? You're not here to ravish me, are you?"

"Of course, not! What 'ravish' means, anyway?"

"Never mind. So you were saying?"

Ranma held out Saotome family blade. "Here, I got the sword, just like you asked me to. I can't describe to you how hard it is for me to get my mom to part with it. What do you need it for, anyway? Don't tell me that you going to pawn it?"

"Very funny, Saotome-kun. Keep it up and I'll hire you out to the circus. I just want to have a look at it"

"Ok, here" Ranma said as he hold the sword in front of him.

"Put it on the table. I'm still busy"

The pigtailed martial artist was about to put the sword on the table when he saw a vial with something small inside. He took the vial and brought it close to his eyes. Whatever that was inside vial looked like a small kitten. The thing seemed to be waving toward him, as if wanting to say something.

"By the way, Saotome-kun, whatever you do, don't remove the cover off the via…"

There was an uncorking sound.

"Opps…" Ranma said a bit guiltily. "Heh heh, it's a bit too late?"

Nabiki looked at Ranma to see that the martial artist began to glow reddish, along with the family sword and the bracelet on his wrist. Meanwhile the thing inside the vial came out and began to circle around him at high speed.

"Huh? What's happening to me?" Ranma asked as he looked at himself. "Huh? Why do I feel so strange…"

"Ranma!" Nabiki cried out as she held her hand. **"Ei'en akesuru, Shinnokokuei! **(Shine eternally, Heart's Dark Shadow)** "** A sphere barrier appeared around Ranma. But to her shock, the thing was trapped inside as well. _'But that wasn't suppose to happen'_ she thought to herself. _'The barrier was supposed to repel anything except the soul it's supposed to protect. Wait… could it be that the…'_

As if confirming her unsaid thoughts, the thing dispersed and Ranma's glow became too bright to look at. After three seconds, the glow receded, leaving Ranma holding a sword with a black blade with a reddish tint to it. Meanwhile, the Saotome Sword and the bracelet he was wearing have disappeared as well. "Huh? What happen?" He looked at the new sword and then at Nabiki who was walking toward him. "What happened?" he asked.

Nabiki gave a very hard slap to his cheek. "You're an idiot!" she hissed. Then suddenly she dropped to her knees in exhaustion because of the power she used. "A stupid idiot," she said while panting.

"Sorry," Ranma said as he rubbed his sore cheek.

"Do you know what happened just now?" Nabiki asked in a small voice.

Ranma shook his head silently.

"You released the kitten spirit I took out from you"

"That means… my Nekoken as well my fear of cats are back?"

"Yes and no. You don't have the Nekoken and the neko-phobia. But the spirit is back inside you"

"So, can you remove it again"

Nabiki shook her head.

"Why? You did it once"

"I can't remove you soul, Saotome-kun"

"Huh? I don't understand"

"I don't know how, but the cat's soul was part of your soul all along"

"Wait…"

"Look at the sword in your hand"

Ranma did as he was told.

"Now, imagine that you're talking to it. Ask it its name"

He closed his eyes for a few seconds. "It told me… that its name is Unmei kiriage"

"Fate's conclusion?" Nabiki asked. She noted that the 'kiri' in the kiriage could also mean 'to slash'. Literally, the sword's name was the 'The slashing conclusion of one's fate'. "A nice name for your sword"

"My sword?" Ranma asked hesitantly.

Nabiki nodded. "Despite you being an asshole and doing things that could be dangerous, you have managed to accidentally unseal one of the powerful techniques ever created. Congratulations"

"This is one of the powerful techniques known? But I don't like fighting using weapons"

"Unfortunately, this is not just a simple weapon; this weapon is an extension of your soul"

"My… my soul?"

"Yes. In case you're wondering, if this sword breaks, you will die instantly"

"But… but…"

"Don't worry. The sword can only be broken by a weapon powered by a stronger soul"

"Oh… that sounds comforting. How do I put this stupi… er… my soul away?"

"I don't know"

"You don't know…. I see" Ranma's eyes widened. "WHAT?! What do you mean you don't know?"

"Do you see me brandishing my soul sword Saotome-kun?" Nabiki, who was still sitting on the floor asked back.

"Err.. no?"

"Very observant. Now, maybe since the sword was kind enough to tell you its name, you can ask it on how to make it go away"

Ranma didn't realize that the statement was said in a sarcastic voice and did what was told. He closed his eyes and focus his attention on the sword. After two seconds, the black sword disappeared and a black bracelet materialized on his right hand. "Hey, you're right. Thanks, Nabs"

"Don't mention it," she answered with a hand on her face. "Since now I've already found out the answer to the question that has been bugging me, why don't you make yourself scarce? I'll think of a way to strip your wallet bare later"

"Okay" Ranma said while heading toward the door.

"AHEM!" Nabiki said while pointing toward the window.

"Oh yeah! Can't have the others misunderstand the situation"

"You're learning fast"

"Anyway, thanks for what you did" Ranma said before he jumped out of the window.

Nabiki, who was still on the floor, looked at the open window and sighed. He had forgotten to wipe off his blood and it had dried. Cleaning it would be a hassle. But the stain was nothing compared to what had transpired after that. She sighed again. Ranma has gotten the sword despite her best efforts.

He was certainly The One.

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (4 January 2007)**

1. First of all:

**HAPPY NEW YEAR!**

2. Some of you may notice that this chapter have certain elements from Bleach (as well as other crossovers). Yes, this story (as well as ESA) is influenced by various COs, but for those who haven't seen the animes, I don't think you'll have any problem following this story. I try to make the story independent of other animes (so the only anime you'll need to know is Ranma 1/2) but if I do screw up regarding this please let me know.


	5. The end of yesterday's beginning

From her position high up in the sky, Kencana looked at the place and smirked. "This is the place is it?" she asked to no one. She then landed at the spot to see that there were some people wearing white hooded robe standing around her. "Hello" s,he greeted cordially.

One of the hooded figures took a step toward her and removed the hood to reveal a 40 year old woman with long brown hair. Beautiful and elegant, she seemed normal except for the fact that both her eyes were completely orange in color, giving an unworldly look to her. "Hello, Kencana. It's been a while"

Kencana chuckled. "Oh, it's you, Shizuka. Fancy meeting you here"

"I have some questions for you," Shizuka said.

Kencana grinned. "Very well. But there's a price to pay" She whipped her hands as if slashing something and a second later, everyone except the two of them fell down, blood gushing out of the wounds all over their bodies.

Despite what happened, Shizuka was quite calm. "Is it really necessary?" she asked Kencana.

"It's not that you have to witness their deaths, Shizuka, or should I say, the Blind Seer?"

Shizuka shook her head. "I would prefer you not calling me by that name"

"Very well, Holy Priestess"

"Don't refer to me by that name as well"

Kencana shrugged and looked at the fallen bodies around her. "Whatever. So, where were we just now?"

"Wait"

"What is it?" The avatar of Chaos asked as she turned toward Shizuka.

The Blind Seer bit her left thumb until it bleeds and smeared the blood on her right palm. She then executed a couple of hand signals using her other hand and then put her left forefinger and middle finger one the right palm. Almost instantly a bluish light began to gather in her right palm. The light began to spread to all of her body until she was consumed by it. The light, then taking a spherical form grew until it was 10 meters in circumference. It then began to contract slowly until it could be seen that all of the energy was gathering on her right forefinger which was pointed toward Kencana. Shizuka then unleashed the blue bolt at the woman.

Kencana held out her hand and the bolt stopped three meters away from her, the energy dispersing over what seemed to be an invisible sphere.

Shizuka looked at what happened and shook her head. "You're still too strong, even now"

"If you wanted to kill me, it would have been easier ten years ago" Kencana said calmly.

"Perhaps. But I don't think it would have made any difference, since you're able to bring out your weapon without the need to call its name. I'm quite surprised. All this while I though that it can create illusions. Obviously I was wrong. The weapon can manipulate dimension, can't it?"

"Half correct. It can manipulate anything inside its radius, with some exceptions of course. Anyway, isn't it a bit ungrateful of you to try and kill me? After all, it was I who saved your life thirty years ago"

"I assure you, I remember that day very well. You saved me from the villagers who were trying to kill me because of my eyes…" She looked away. "by massacring them"

"Eyes of the demons, as they called it," Kencana said while seeming to ignore the last statement.

Shizuka nodded in agreement. "But that didn't give you the right to kill everyone"

"And you have no right to lecture me, seeing that your attack just now was charged with chaos energy" Kencana smiled. "You're 'tainted', aren't you?" Seeing Shizuka not responding to her question, her smile became larger. "That's why you didn't want me to call you Holy Priestess" Kencana then laughed. "Hah, you're not 'holy' anymore"

"Perhaps," Shizuka said as she looked down. "I understand what Chaos is"

Kencana turned away and moved to a spot. She then kneeled down and began tracing some symbols on the ground using her forefinger. "So ?"

"I may belong to the force of Chaos after all"

The smirk reappeared on Kencana's face. "That' good to know. I'll let the Infernal Queen know about your allegiance. I'm sure she'll be happy to put you in charge of a legion of demons and devils"

Shizuka closed the distance between the two of them without difficulty, despite her blindness. "I don't think so. There's no hiding it anymore, Kencana. The demons don't belong to the force of Chaos. They belong to the force of Order"

"I'm sure Hild wouldn't appreciate you saying that she's in league with the Gods,"

"In some ways, she is. There's no such thing as the forces of Good and Chaos, or Good and Evil. There are only the forces of Order and Chaos. The gods and demons both belong to the force of Order"

"So, how do you explain the two factions being at each other's throat?"

"Simple. There are two polarities to the force of Order: Creation and Destruction. While the gods create, the demons destroy. However, both the creation and destruction follows the force of Order"

"You're saying that there's Orderly Creation and Orderly Destruction"

The blind seer nodded. "Yes"

Kencana stopped what she was doing to look at Shizuka. "You figured out the biggest secret in the universe in just few mortal years; I'm impressed"

"But that didn't explain why you killed the Blessbringer clan! You would have…," Shizuka caught hold of herself as she realized what she was talking about. Blessbringer is known to be the highest protector of Order on Earth. While Kencana may want to have her revenge, the fact remained that she shouldn't have spared the four from the clan. It was a bit strange for someone like Kencana. Shizuka's orange eyes widened, "Don't tell me…"

Kencana nodded once. "Yes"

"Not only you destroy the clan, you also corrupted the remaining members"

"If you think that way… I suppose it's not really far off"

"WHY?" Shizuka demanded.

"Blessbringer always pride itself on being the follower of Order"

"And you changed it into the slaves of Chaos?!" Shizuka asked, raising her voice.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. That's not really the way for a wise seer to act. If you think that I caused the clan to go along the path of Chaos, then you're wrong. What I did was to give the survivors the choice to either follow Order or Chaos. If they continue on to follow Order, good for them. But if they choose Chaos, well, it'll be because the seeds of Chaos are inside them all this while"

Shizuka was about to ask another question when she realized something and kept quiet for a long time. Eventually, she spoke, "The era of Chaos is beginning, isn't it?"

"Maybe" Kencana finished tracing the symbols on the ground, which covered quite a large area.

"That's another reason why the Blessbringer had to be corrupted. You plan for the humans to be unwitting agents of Chaos, starting with the clan, don't you?"

Kencana chuckled quietly, to the chagrin of the woman in front of her. Meanwhile, the symbols beneath her began to glow.

"What's so funny?" Shizuka asked.

"You still haven't realized it, have you?" The glow around Kencana became more intense. "Humans aren't unwitting agents of Chaos; they are children of Chaos"

The whole area was bathed in light.

* * *

Nabiki put a hand on her mouth and coughed a little. "Come in," she said. 

The door to her room quickly opened and closed as a certain pigtailed martial artist looked around cautiously.

"So, Saotome-kun, what brings you here? It's quite obvious from your expression that I'm more like the black plaque that has to be avoided"

"No, no, I never think of you in that way; maybe more like influenza, but definitely not black plague" Ranma said while laughing nervously, not realizing what he said.

"_Note to self: Get a very big mallet when it's on sale"_ Nabiki thought to herself. "So in what way can I help to lighten your wallet? Or is it more exercise that you want me to give you?"

Ranma groaned. He had really paid for the mistake he made a week before. Nabiki really meant what she said that she will get punish him for opening the vial by mistake. Ranma suddenly found himself having fully booked by the school clubs. That was okay for him. But to spite him further, Nabiki assigned him the hardest job of all: preparing notes for all of the subjects in his school level for her to sell. That meant endless and endless hours of pouring over the facts before writing and rewriting the notes. As a result of that, he didn't get enough sleep. And he had to ensure that he didn't fall asleep in the class. The first time he pulled and overnighter, he ended up to Miss Hinako looking at him as if he had grown two heads. Later Akane told him that he had mumbled the day's lesson in his sleep. All throughout the day he had to endure the other students calling him genius. What happened had really spoiled his image as a lazy and laid-back student, something that he was rather proud of.

"Well?" Nabiki pressed a bit.

He had no choice but to approach Nabiki because of the problem he's currently facing. "I have a problem with my sword, or at least that's what I think"

Nabiki looked at him quizzically.

Noticing the questioning look, Ranma continued, "Well, this may seem weird, but I think my sword is making strange noise in my head" Realizing what he said could be interpreted wrongly, he hastened add, "I'm not crazy or something like that, just to make it clear, you know, just…."

"I believe you" Nabiki said, interrupting him. "In fact I sometime wonder how you manage to keep yourself level-headed despite the insanity surrounding your life" She stopped for few seconds to think before continuing, "So the voice in your head: is it being a bitch or being a bastard?"

"What do you mean?"

"Does it whine or does it taunt you?"

Ranma put a hand under his chin. "I think it sounds like it's asking for something"

Nabiki sighed. "Just as I thought. Bring out your sword, Saotome-kun"

The bracelet on his right wrist glowed and a second later Ranma was holding Unmei Kiriage. He handed it to Nabiki who examined the sword before running her forefinger along the sharp edge slowly, testing it sharpness. She then ran through it again, this time leaving a trail of blood, to Ranma's shock. "Hey, what are you doing?" he croaked.

"Hush, Saotome-kun," Nabiki said as she wrote her name on one of the flat part of the blade in hiragana using her bloodied finger.

"Nabiki!"

The middle Tendo girl kept quiet while she set the sword on the floor. She muttered an incantation and immediately a magical circle appeared below the sword and greenish light emanated from the red hiragana letters on the sword. Then the light changed into red as the letters began to dissolve, as if disappearing into the sword. The black blade's red tint became more pronounced after the glow subsided, as if her blood was absorbed by the sword, making it redder. Nabiki then handed the sword back to Ranma while saying, "Done".

Ranma looked at her as if she had grown another head. "WHAT THE…"

Before he could shout out his question, a pillow thrown at his face stopped him. He sputtered and pulled the pillow away from his face. Nabiki who was looking at him with calm expression said, "Unless you want the rest of the family to come to this room you better keep quiet"

Realizing what she said was true, Ranma nodded quietly.

"Here's your sword"

Before Ranma could take the sword, suddenly the door opened, with Akane looking around. She then settled her gaze on where Ranma was standing, with the martial artist cowering, expecting a swift retribution for entering Nabiki's room in the middle of the night.

"Where's Ranma?" Akane asked.

Ranma raised his head to see that Akane was looking through him, as if she didn't see him.

"What do you mean?" Nabiki asked.

"I heard his voice coming from here just now. Sis, it's improper for you let guys enter your room"

"And it's improper for a younger sister to invade her older sister's privacy. I know you like him, but it's no excuse for you to enter my room without permission":

"It's… just that…"

Nabiki held up her hands. "Very well, we'll remember to include you next time" Nabiki smiled. "Threesome would be interesting"

"Sis!" Akane protested; her face red with embarrassment.

"Just joking. Off you go now" Before Akane close the door, Nabiki added, "Just remember that you owe me 400 yen more" The younger sister huffed and slammed the door. Nabiki then turned toward Ranma who had a surprise look on him. "And you owe me 300 yen for not locking the door after you enter… wait, make it a Super Supreme"

Ranma mentally sighed. The super supreme sundae would cost him 600 yen. Wait. It will cost him 1200 yen as Nabiki would put on a show eating the ice cream and he would end up buying one for himself as well. But rather than complaining about it, he was more interested in what Nabiki did to make him invisible.

"Don't ask, Saotome-kun," Nabiki said as if knowing what he would say. At his slack jaw, she smirked, "You can't afford the answer" She then placed the sword in his hand. "Congratulations on your first kill," she said jokingly. "I would never have thought that I would be your first"

The young man scratched his head as he tried to think about why is it that the statement was causing blood to rush to his face. "What do you mean?"

"A sword will only become powerful if the blade is tainted by blood" As Ranma's eyes widened, Nabiki smirked and continued, "In your case, the sword hungered for a kill"

"But I haven't killed anyone yet"

"Oh, but you do, in a way. I've put a seal to trick the sword into thinking that it has killed me"

Ranma looked at the sword cautiously. "But I don't want to kill anyone"

"Oh, that would be easy. Judging from what I've seen, the sword mirrors your thoughts. So, as long as you want the sword to be…"

The martial artist was ahead of her as the sword sharp edge became blunt.

"Show off," Nabiki growled before continuing, "Put your sword away"

Ranma did as he was told and the sword blinked out of existence. "It's amazing that you know how to do seals"

Nabiki had that faraway look on her face. "Mother was a seal expert"

Scratching his head guiltily for bringing up the subject, Ranma thought about what he should say next to change the topic. "I can see who inherited her talent"

"Actually, Kasumi inherited that talent, although she never found out about it. As for me, I'm not really good at making seals. In fact, all this time I spent studying them, I only managed to master five of them"

Despite mentally groaning at a new mistake he made, Ranma tried to reconcile. "Well, I know that you're talented in other areas, such as making potions, maybe?" Suddenly a not so subtle smell pervaded the room, suggesting a hint of ginger, wasabi and some smell Ranma couldn't place. Then a muffled voice cursing was audible, clearly belonging to Akane.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Despite wanting to make miso soup like she told me this afternoon, my sister has accidentally made a strength enhancing potion, if the smell is of any indication"

"You must be joking!"

"When my sister feed you her meals, have you ever wondered why you experience difference effects each time?"

Ranma was about to retort a reply when he realized that she was right. Apart from the meals having that 'unique' taste, they had different effects on him. Example would be the soufflé she made last week that made him sound like a chipmunk; the curry rice the week before that caused him to run like a Duracell bunny. Of course, there's the chicken pie the preceding month that caused him to actually think that he was a rooster and ran across the town, flapping his hands as if they were wings while crowing every now and then. Since that day, every time they met, Mousse had rubbed it in so often by mentioning that Ranma was a chicken half of the time while emphasizing on the word 'chicken'. However that Ranma stopped beating the visually-challenged martial artist as he didn't want to be labeled a bully. Not that it was hard get Mousse to beat himself as all Ranma had to do was to remove the poor guy's spectacles. Ranma suppressed a shiver as he thought about what happened every time he ate Akane's food. Then a strange idea came to his mind.

Nabiki shrugged. "My mother can't boil water without having burning it either. It's the drawback of being talented in mixing potions"

Ignoring the feeling of awe at her being able to predict what he was going to ask, Ranma went through the other one, "But you didn't tell her?"

"I did when she made her first nitroglycerin mixture and blew the house's roof away, but she said that she wanted to become a good cook like Kasumi. Besides, 'martial artists don't need potions'," Nabiki said, mimicking Akane's voice. "As for Kasumi, she's not interested in learning magic" Another sigh escaped her lips. "What a waste," she uttered slowly, as if talking to herself.

"But how about you?" Ranma asked, startling Nabiki out of her thought. "Surely you inherited something from your mother besides the good look"

Despite the tendency to speak without thinking has gotten Ranma into countless problems, he did say something right from time to time. This was earned by a kiss on his cheek by the girl in front of him. The kiss would have knocked him out if not for the fact that he has kissed before; Shampoo, Ukyo and even Akane had kissed him on the lips. He still blushed from the kiss though. "Thank you for being sweet, Saotome-kun," Nabiki said. "As for me, I received her knowledge"

"Knowledge of what?"

"I don't know if I should tell you…," Nabiki said slyly, "maybe I received the knowledge about you?"

Ranma never had the chance to question that statement as he was pushed to the door.

The next day started normally with the normal school happenings. While Kuno no longer went after the pig-tailed goddess and challenged Akane for date, he and the other suitors had a new ritual. Following the fighting ritual was replaced with something more dastardly. Due to Ranma's suggestion that they ask Akane out normally, Kuno and the others began to clamor for her attention by giving her gifts. However, the ritual became twisted and Akane found herself being buried under gifts every morning. She had taken her frustration on them like before. However, that that had to stop when they began to shower her with more gifts as a sign of apology; the more she hits them, the more gifts they gave her.

As Nabiki looked at her sister struggling to get out of the hill of gifts, she spied Chisa who was looking at her from a secluded spot. The middle Tendo girl walked up to the Blessbringer heiress and asked, "What are you doing here?" she asked angrily.

Chisa hung her head, not knowing how to answer the question. After all, she had been fought Nabiki and was defeated, despite her being powerful than latter. Apart from that, Chisa regretted going against her respected sempai.

"We still have betting ring to set up and it wouldn't do for you to be skulking in a corner,"

Chisa raised her head to regard Nabiki with a confuse look. "But…"

"No but, Chisa," Nabiki said with a smile. "After all, you're my assistant"

Despite being the most talented in the Blessbringer clan and the girl in front of her was just a weak magic user, Chisa couldn't help but feel happy at the announcement. The announcement was tantamount to Nabiki already forgiving her. "Yes!" she said as she went away to join the other factors.

Nabiki looked at the girl while congratulating herself. At least her relationship with Chisa had returned to normal. It looked as if it was going to be a fine day. However, her assumption was proven wrong when she saw Chisa waiting for her at the school gate after school session was over with a downcast face. "All right, what now?" she asked

Chisa pointed to a limousine behind her. "My father, the head of my clan, would like to have a word with you"

Nabiki shook her head a bit. Somehow she expected that the fight between the two of them would garner interest from other parties. "Very well. Let me tell my sister and her fiancé that I wouldn't be going home with them"

An hour later, Nabiki was walking along the corridor of a big and very traditional house, wondering why she expected Chisa to be living in a European-styled mansion. The said girl was leading her to a big room where a man was sitting on a tatami zabuton, a pillow measuring 50 cm square and 5 cm in thickness. There were two more such pillows in front of him, obviously for Chisa and Nabiki to sit on.

The man, in the 40s, had a clean shaven face and short cropped hair. He nodded as the two girls took their seats. "It's finally a pleasure being able to meet you here. I'm Motosuwa Itachi, also known as the Itachi Blessbringer. I'm the head of the Japan branch of the clan"

"It's a not really a secret that the Japan branch is the most powerful branch of the clan for more than three centuries. Tendo Nabiki. Pleased to make your acquaintance"

"Despite having high respect for the tradition, I'm not going to waste our time and will get straight to the point," Itachi said. "We would like to form an alliance with you"

Nabiki raised her eyebrows. "Me? On what?"

Itachi looked at her daughter before continuing. "Your intelligence is surely exceptional if my wayward daughter submits to your directives at school,"

"Really, you flatter me too much," the Tendo girl said while smiling nonchalantly. With just a few words, the man in front of her had told a lot about Chisa's personality that she hadn't know, complimenting her and warning her not to act dumb, all at the same time. The man was very good. _'Very well'_, Nabiki said to herself, deciding to play according to Itachi's rule. "However I have to decline," she said, ignoring the gasp from the girl next to her. "I can't work with you because I am Kencana"

"Nabiki-sempai!" Chisa almost shouted. She would have stood up if not for the fact that her father held up his hand.

Itachi nodded slowly. The girl in front of him was replying to him in the same way, which impressed him a bit. The Tendo girl had essentially and at the same time subtly pointed out to him that she could be the very enemy the clan was trying to kill and trying to recruit her into their side might be a big mistake. While some people may arrive at this conclusion and think that was all what Nabiki had to say, Itachi was not like them. Despite not even as strong as Chisa, he had become the clan's head, due to his extraordinary intelligence which no one could surpass, with that exception of that… man.

Itachi closed his eyes, willing the thought about the person to go away and instead focus on his reply to Nabiki. Besides suggesting that she might be Kencana, her statement was also open to the interpretation that ONE of the Blessbringer's clan members could be Kencana reincarnated, which could be him or Chisa apart from countless others; Nabiki didn't want to take the risk. The involvement factor also was an interesting point. Suppose Nabiki allied herself with the clan and it turned out that Kencana was reincarnated as one of the people she knew. Would the clan be able to trust her to side with it? Itachi couldn't demand it because had the situation be reversed and his daughter was Kencana, he couldn't be sure what to do. The head of the Blessbringer Clan opened his eyes. Tendo Nabiki was an interesting person indeed. But before he could say anything, the building shook a bit.

"The building is under attack!" Chisa said as the three of them got up and quickly exited the room, into the yard.

They looked around but couldn't find any intruders. It was then a white feather floated down in front of Nabiki who held out her hand to take it. The white feather dispersed when it touched her skin, telling her that it was not a normal feather, but one made from energy.

Nabiki looked heavenward.

"She was here"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (31 January 2007)**

1. It's been a while since I updated my fics and this story is the first one I worked on after I have the time to do it.

* * *

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	6. The white wings of the future

An eighty year old Shizuka stood at the same spot where Kencana disappeared after executing her final spell. "It's been a while, Kencana," she said. "It took me forty more years to really understand what you meant by the statement you made that day"

Beneath her, magical symbols began to appear bit by bit

"Humans are beings of polar opposite, aren't they? Only a human can have a feeling so deep toward another person but at the same time harbor hate that rivals that feeling at another"

Symbols of water and fire appeared on ground.

"To create and at the same time to destroy,"

Symbol of sun appeared on her right and the moon on her left.

"To live in the light and at the same time in the darkness,"

Arrows pointing to the Blind Seer's front and her back appeared.

"To take a step toward the future, but at the same time have a foot back in the past,"

More and more symbols began to appear.

"To hope but yet to submit,"

The circle began to grow with more symbols on the ground.

"To give but at the same time to take,"

Finally the magical circle was finished.

"That is the mark of the children of Chaos," Shizuka said.

Then the circle began to glow bright.

**Bumi dipijak langit dijunjung, **(By the earth whose heaven I uphold)

**Bulan di malam, suria di siang, **(By the moon of the night and sun of the day)

**Rohnya, niatnya harap mengunjung, **(Bring forth to me her intent, her soul)

**Fikirannya terakhirnya, biarlah terang. **(Let it be clear, what her last though wanted to say),

Shizuka screamed in pain as the energy gushed out of her forcefully into the magical symbols underneath. The symbols began to glow brighter and brighter until the whole area was engulfed by it. Then, the glow suddenly disappeared, leaving an exhausted Shizuka standing at the spot.

"I can't believe it," she said. "How could she come up with such a dastardly spell?!"

"What spell?" a male voice asked, surprising Shizuka.

"Who are you?" she asked back.

A man with white shoulder-length hair walked in front of her. "It's been a while Aunt Shizuka," the man said haughtily.

"It you, Schneider"

"In person"

"So… the presence that I felt an hour ago…"

"Is me," Schneider answered while smirking.

"You have no right to be here!" Shizuka hissed.

"So do you. By the way, can you tell me about what you found out?"

"No,"

"Aw, come on, you can tell me. After all, I'm your godson,"

"You've been corrupted and there's no way I'll tell someone who had betrayed the way of Blessbringer"

Schneider sighed. "Using that argument again? I know you're old, but that doesn't meant you have to think in an old-fashioned way"

"You seek power, without realizing how it will eventually destroy you,"

The man chuckled. "That's a bit ironic. You see, the way I see it, what the clan did 60 years ago was the same. They sought power in the form of a sword, didn't they? That's why they got slaughtered. So, how to say this… maybe I'm trying to follow the tradition? And before you give me all that crap about power being evil, let me tell you that power is just like a sharpened sword. What people do with it will determine whether it's good or not"

"What you're doing isn't good"

"Good?" Schneider sneered. "Who determine what is good? God? In that case it would be good as I will be God eventually,"

"YOU'RE MAD!"

"Perhaps, but powerful nevertheless" Schneider disappeared from Shizuka's view, reappeared in front of her and stabbed her waist using a knife with runes on it.

The Blind Seer instantly collapsed to the ground, unable to move as her blood began to flow freely out of her.

"You see, I was planning to let you rot with old age if you cooperated with me, but since you don't want to tell me, I might as well use you for something else" he then used her own blood to draw some symbols on her face, hands and legs. "To prove that I'm not bitter about it, I will tell you a secret," He then whispered to her ear. "So that's the answer to the question that you always wanted to know regarding me," He then moved away to look at her face. "Oh, don't make such a face. Being stupid isn't something to be ashamed about. You can always learn from it, you know, something to remember in the future… Whoops, in your case that doesn't apply, does it? In a short moment, you will become the sacrifice for my summoning"

Shizuka closed her eyes, thinking about how wrong she was about the whole thing. Schneider's betrayal caused her to finally understand that she was trying to look at Kencana's planning from her own view. Then a thought about Kencana's plan occurred to her, one that caused her to smile ruefully. Schneider was right about her being stupid. "_Very well, Kencana."_ She thought to herself. _"I really would like to see what your plan really is. I wouldn't interfere; I would just see," _ Shizuka opened her eyes to see that Schneider was busy preparing a large sacrificial circle, with her in the middle. Using her dissipating strength, the Blind Seer made a small circle on the ground using her finger and then covered it with her hand just before her consciousness slipped away.

* * *

Kasumi stood in front of the stove, drinking the miso soup using the tasting saucer. "Hmm… a bit bland," she said as she added a pinch of salt to the pot containing the soup. 

"TING!" the oven's bell chimed.

The eldest Tendo girl then took out something wrapped in aluminum foil. "The eel is ready, so the only thing left to do is to cook cabbage. Then Nabiki can just heat them all for dinner tonight," she said as she look at the clock. "I have plenty of time to prepare for tonight's date, so I guess I can watch Winter Hymn later on. Oh well, I hope that Tofu-kun will bring me to that place Nabiki told me about last week,"

The said sister was standing in the Blessbringer's, compound, together with Chisa and Itachi. The three of them were looking heavenward. They remained that way until the middle Tendo girl broke the silence. "I guess this solidifies the fact that we couldn't possibly work together, at least for now"

"Yes. It seems so," Itachi agreed. "It seems that I can't trust you anymore"

"What are you talking about, father?" Chisa asked. "This should prove beyond any doubt that both Tendo-sempai and our family aren't affiliated with that bitch in anyway,"

Nabiki shook her head. "What your father's saying is right, Chisa. Think about it, just after your father proposed an alliance, this place was attacked"

"So that's why…"

"Chisa-chan," Itachi interrupted, "Our place was attacked out of the blue and it only happened after Tendo-san came here. Granted, the seals protected us from the attack, but I have to say that such an attack had never happened before"

"But that…"

He raised his hand up to quiet her. "At the same time, to Tendo-san, it seemed as if the attack happened at a _very_ convenient time, just after I proposed it to her. To her, it looks as if we're trying to convince her to join by staging a mock attack"

Nabiki put her hand over her mouth as she coughed. "And to your father, it also looks like I'm staging the attack to prove my innocence. Well, I'm sure both your father and I can add some more reasons, but let's leave it at that, shall we?" she asked while looking at Itachi. "So, I guess since it ends here, see you tomorrow at school, Chisa"

"Wait," Itachi said.

Nabiki raised her eyebrows.

"We would like to ask your help in finding more information regarding Ametsuchi no kuchiku sumitsuki"

"Black seal of Heaven and earth's destruction?" Nabiki asked back. "What do you mean?"

"According to our family records that has been handed down from a generation to another generation, Kencana had power almost rivaling Kami and Daimakaichou Hild. But due to an unknown reason, she supposedly died after completing the seal. From the limited knowledge that we have, removing the seal could destroy the universe"

"And you're thinking that she'll do it?"

"Frankly, we don't know," Itachi admitted. "However, we couldn't ignore the risk"

Nabiki stood quietly for more than a minute until she said, "Very well, I suppose helping you with information wouldn't hurt," she then did a small bow. "I'll take my leave, then"

"One more thing, Tendo-san. I would like to tell you that our family really isn't as united as it seems and how they act is out of my jurisdiction,"

The young sorceress nodded. Itachi told her that a family branch or two from the Blessbinger clan might come to force her to join it. Since the clan's headman absolved any responsibility regarding their action, that mean if they did anything to her and her family, she couldn't blame him. On the other hand, Itachi's comment may be a soft threat to her for turning down his invitation in the first place. In any case, his comment also meant that Nabiki could react to any provocation from the clan with force. "I'll do my best to remember that"

"Chisa-chan, please send Tendo-san to her house,"

Chisa nodded and escorted Nabiki.

Itachi watched the two of them until they're far enough. Meanwhile, an aide walked to his side. "Interesting girl, isn't she?" Itachi asked.

"Yes sir"

"So let me see our analysis on her"

The aide handed him a printout. The whole Blessbringer compound was rigged with numerous magic sensors that can provide accurate details on anyone who entered it. However, when Itachi read the printout, he narrowed his eyes.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Nabiki Tendo

Fighting style: Tendo School of Anything Goes

Fighter class : F

Magic class: F

Mana color: Unconfirmed

Mana type: None

Mana Pool: 0

Average : F

----------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in, Kyoto Ranma stifled a slight shiver as he walked toward the entrance. Behind him, Akane, Ukyo and Shampoo were bickering with Mousse getting whacked by Shampoo every other minute for being too loud. _"Oh well," _he thought to himself. At least the Shinkansen trip was enjoyable, especially since Nabiki paid for his and Akane's fee.

After he had stopped in front of the door and rang the ball, Ranma took the opportunity to study the door's construction; he was smart enough not to get involve in the argument behind him. From its size and the intricate designs etched to the strong wood that was used to build it, it was obvious that the place was prestigious. Of course, Aoyama of Kyoto was a well known family and he knew that even before he reached there.

Ten minutes later, both of them were standing at one of the family's training grounds with the two familiar members of the family; both of them were women.

One of them, an older but have a slightly more regal look to her said, "Ara, it's been a while, Saotome-san. Are you here to avenge the Nerima Wrecking Crew's defeat to Hina Demolition Team?"

"Ane-ue," the younger one protested. "We're not the Hina Demolition Team"

"Ara? Didn't the Mr. Referee refer to us by that name at that time?"

"That's why I told you that he was making it up?"

The older one acquiesced "Very well, if you say so" She then turned toward Ranma and his group. "Well?"

"We're not here for that, Aoyama-san," Truth be told, he was supposed to refer to her by her family name, but he wasn't sure whether the woman adopted her husband's family name or not. After all, man marrying into the woman's family isn't really a rare occurrence

"Maa, you don't have to be so formal to me. Tsuruko is enough,"

"My mother would have my hide if I dare to be disrespectful to you, Tsuruko-san,"

"Ah, that's typical of her. So how's she?"

Ranma didn't answer immediately. He did stop by home on the way to Kyoto but didn't get in as his father was home at that time and certain dialogue that he heard... "Um, energetic as usual, I guess"

"Ohohoho. That's what to be expected from Sempai," After Tsuruko had stopped laughing, she continued asking, "So, why are you here? You're not after Motoko's hand in marriage, do you?"

Ranma looked at the girl next to Tsuruko who was giving him a dirty look. "No, of course not. I must be crazy to do so"

Tsuruko's expression changed into a scary one. "Are you saying that my sister isn't feminine enough for you?"

"No! I don't mean like that. She's... quite not flat-chested, unviolent, doesn't attack unprovoked and certain untomboyish," Ranma added hastily without knowing that with the exception of the first one, all other remarks were dead-on. Motoko's face was crimson as Ranma's words reminded her of what she did to a man she secretly like. Her expression contrasted with the ghastly pale face worn by the pigtailed martial artist who heard Akane muttering about cooking for him a seven-course meal in order to prove that she could be feminine as well.

Tsuruko, despite noticing her sister's change of expression pretended not to notice it and instead addressed Ranma. "So, why are you here then?"

Ranma closed the distance between them and delivered a package and an envelope to Tsuruko. "I'm asked to hand this to you,"

The older Aoyama opened the envelope and read its content, ignoring the questioning glance from her sister and Ranma. After she had finished, Tsuruko lowered the letter with a thoughtful look. "Now I understand. Their resemblance to her _was_ uncanny," she said as she gave a quick glance at Akane. She opened the package slowly only to reveal a wooden box. After opening the box to take a look, Tsuruko's eyes widened in shock, something out of place with her normally calm demeanor. She then quickly schooled her features, "Very well. I accept,"

"You do?" Ranma said happily. "Oh, that's the easiest job I had so far. So, see you later…" Ranma said as he turned away.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home. Hopefully I can get there before dinner,"

"Saotome-kun, do you know about the letter's content?"

"No?" Ranma said as he turned back to Tsuruko.

"Motoko…," Tsuruko said as she showed the box content to Motoko.

Motoko was shocked by what she saw as well. She then raised her head to look at Ranma.

"Yes, he's the bearer" Tsuruko answered her sister's unvoiced question.

"Um… can you tell me what's going on?" Ranma asked.

While Motoko was slowly unsheathing her sword, Tsuruko said, "Saotome-kun, may I know what she told you when she asked you to give this box to me?"

Ranma didn't really the look Motoko was sporting as she settled into a ready stance. "Ah, well, Nabs did ask me whether I would like some help with my training"

Tsuruko put hand under her chin thoughtfully. "Training?"

"You know, maybe to get me acquainted with Kyoto-style martial art?"

Tsuruko brought out a fan, spread it in front of her face and laughed. "Ah, I see. Well, I'm sure my sister would be happy to oblige with your 'training', Saotome-kun" She turned toward Motoko. "Motoko, please gave him a thorough beating,"

Motoko quickly attacked Ranma who quickly dodged. While the pigtailed martial artist's speed was supposed to be better, but to some reason he could barely got away.

"Hey, ya crazy or something?" Ranma asked, forgetting to use proper speech.

The swordswoman didn't answer but kept attacking him.

The rest of Ranma's group was about to intervene to help him when Tsuruko appeared in front of them, holding her hand up. "Please don't interfere,"

"Your sister is trying to kill my husband!? Shampoo said. "Well, future to-be," she quickly added.

Tsuruko shook her head. "No, she's not. It's not a real fight; rather it's a fight to regain our honor"

"By killing Ran-chan?" Ukyo asked while pushing the gropping Mousse toward Shampoo.

Once again Tsuruko's darted toward Akane before she continue to address the whole group. "Of course not. Well, an explanation is in order. Our family, the Aoyama of Kyoto is well known for its long line of demon slayers. The family had been serving the Emperor since the first one ascended on the Chrysanthemum Throne. Despite that, the family had produced exceptional ones from time to time. Forty five years ago, one such person was born; her power and talent wasn't seen in an Aoyama in the last two centuries. However, due to some personal reason, she didn't inherit the school and left. But before she left, she and her older sister had made a promise to fight every five years. They fought twice, both ended with the Miko winning the fight,"

"Then what happened?" Akane asked.

"Well, she passed away without naming her successor. Her sister did name her successor, which was me," Tsuruko said as she looked at Ranma jumping out of Motoko's sword attack, "and since I pass my right to inherit the school, my sister. But now, it seems that Saotome-kun has been nominated to be her successor by her descendant"

"That means…" Shampoo said, trailing.

Tsuruko nodded. "He fights in her place,"

"Wait," Ukyo interjected, "who's her descendant?"

"It's a secret," Tsuruko said while smiling. "Although it does seem a bit weird…"

"What is?" Akane asked out of curiosity.

"The letter assured me that Saotome-kun has a sword with him. However, I have yet to see him bring it out. He had been depending on his martial art techniques to fight. See?" she said while pointing to Ranma's ki-blast meeting Motoko's own, causing a big explosion at the point of impact. The duel is supposed to be fought out using swords instead"

"Aiya. Looks like Ranma's bracelet is impeding his true power as well," Shampoo commented

"What do you mean?" the older Aoyama asked.

"It can adjust Ranma's strength according to the person his fighting with," Ukyo answered the question.

"So that means he's probably stronger than Motoko?"

"Yes," Akane answered.

"That thing sounds interesting. I must find out where I can get such item. It would be useful for Motoko"

All the while the girls were talking, Mousse kept quiet. As he watched Ranma blocked another attack, he adjusted the rim of his glass. Unlike others, he knew the bracelet's real function and who gave it to him. Despite him being considered a lower ranking member of his Amazon village, Mousse was no fool, pretending to be a myopic idiot who pined for Shampoo. While some people would have screamed in terror whenever the Jusenkyo was mentioned, he wasn't such person. In fact, being a duck part of the time had its own advantage. Sure, it was risky for him to turn into an animal in order to gather information, but that came with the job description. And truth be told, he sympathized with Ranma for having to wear a seal to restrict his power. But he was sure that Nabiki, the person who gave Ranma the item knew the pig-tailed martial artist's latent power; Mousse had witnessed firsthand what he was capable of doing. The male Amazon smiled. Whatever the case, he got to see Ranma getting his ass shoved with a katana and he intended to enjoy himself.

"**Zankuusen** (Air-Cleaving-Flash)" Motoko cried as she attacked an airborne Ranma.

Ranma, realizing that he was trapped in the air tapped into his chi reserve to release a fireball attack. "**Moko Takabisha**"

The two attacks collided and canceled each other.

As he landed, Ranma congratulated himself for being able to use an emotion-neutral ki attack up to seventy percent of his previous level. While using emotion to fuel the attack made it easier to perform, another martial artist had pointed out that it was not without its repercussion. Before Ranma could dwell on the matter anymore, Motoko was upon him, attacking. As he swerved out of the way, he idly wondered about what Nabiki had mentioned in the letter to Tsuruko and what was in the box.

At that time, the said swordswoman was stealing glance at Akane. It came to a shock to her when she read the letter and realized that the girl named Akane and her sisters were the daughters of her mother's younger sister. In fact, when they met at Hina dormitory few months ago, she didn't recognize them at all. Obviously, the girl named Nabiki knew her and her relation to their family. But Tsuruko wondered why she only revealed the fact after so long had passed. It was if the girl did it reluctantly. She absentmindedly slashed a stray ki attack using her own sword while thinking about the matter. Then something attracted her attention. "Someone… or something with great power is coming here,"

Before she could determine the source, something landed between Ranma and Motoko, forcing the two combatants to move away from each other.

The first thing about the newcomer that caught the attention of everyone was the fact that she had white wings, like those possessed by birds. She was wearing a black and red dress, with some strange motifs on it. Her luxurious golden hair was waist-length and there were symbols on her face; a blue sun on her fore head and a triangle on above each cheek. Nineteen pebble-sized orbs of lights, nine of them blue, six were green, another three yellow and the last one red, orbited around her body. She turned to look at everyone, slowly, with a calculative look on her face.

Tsuruko, despite sensing the power the newcomer was projecting, took a step forward and asked, "Who are you?"

Ignoring Tsuruko's question, she turned toward Ranma, "Are you him," she then turned toward Mousse, "or is it you?"

"Didn't you hear what my sister asked you just now?" Motoko demanded.

Without even turning her head toward Motoko, the newcomer answered, "You're annoying," One of the blue orbs stopped for a second and then sped toward Motoko as a very large blue bolt.

"Motoko!" Tsuruko called out as she ran toward her sister. "**Raimeiken**! (Sword Of Crying Thunder)" A powerful lightning blast from her intercepted the blue bolt and caused it to deviate, missing Motoko only by a meter. After she reached Motoko, she asked, "Are you okay Motoko?"

Motoko nodded.

"Don't let your guard down. She's very powerful,"

"Hmm… a powerful sword wielder," the attacker commented. "Perhaps you're related to him,"

Tsuruko turned toward her. "To whom?"

"Aozora"

"Who is that?" Akane asked in a small voice but was heard by the woman.

"My soul mate. Tell me, where is he?"

Ukyo had brought out her battle spatula while both the Joketsuko villagers followed suit. "Look honey, you come waltzing without permission, pretend as if you own the place then ask us to fetch this so-called Aozora without even introducing yourself. What if this 'Aozora' wouldn't meet you?"

"He will meet me. After all, I'm Kencana,"

"We didn't ask for your name," Akane huffed as she got into a fighting stance while looking at Shampoo going into hers.

The newcomer who referred to herself as Kencana was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking. Then she said, "Very well. Fight me"

"Say what?" Ranma asked.

"Fight me. All of you"

"There's no chance in the world I will…" he couldn't finished his words as a kick to his stomach flung him far away.

Kencana landed gracefully as her white wings flapped. "Please take me seriously or it will be troublesome,"

Tsuruko gave a nod to her sister as both of them launched their attacks simultaneously.

"**Hyakkaryouran **(Hundred-Flower-Pandemonium)" Motoko cried out as she used her sword to release a straight ki blast toward Kencana

"**Zantetsusen** (Steel-Cleaving-Flash)" her sister shouted while her own sword released a spiral ki attack just after her sister's attack.

The spiral ki attack Zantetsusen caught up with Hyakkaryouran's own straight attack and they merged into a bigger ki blast.

Despite the threat that was coming her way, Kencana's expression was calm. Out of the remaining small orbs that still orbited around her, one of yellow orbs stopped in front her. She used her finger to poke it and a yellow circle appeared, just in time to block the incoming ki-blast. After the ki-blast had abated, Kencana dropped her shield, a small smile creeping to her face. "That's not bad. Do you have more?"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (27 February 2007 --- 27-2-27)**

1. It's the first time ever Kencana really appeared in the present time. Before this, besides from appearing in 'history' section (the first section before the divider line), she also appeared a few times in this story and Ever Stay Chaotic, although her appearance was masked. Later, it will make more sense as more and more will be revealed.

2. I'm quite certain some of you may wonder regarding Hina Demolition Team. It's a bit hard to describe but the NWC had a Battle Royal with Hina Residence (from Love Hina). Yes, this story COs with Love Hina, but if you haven't seen that anime or read the manga, well, I don't think you will miss much. The focus is still on Ranma half.


	7. The untold history

The two sword mistresses of the Aoyama family looked at each other, wondering why their attack had failed. While they didn't know who Kencana was, they did know that she's very strong. Motoko turned toward the Akane and the others who were watching, dumfounded by the fact Ranma was easily knocked down by the woman. "This place is dangerous, you must leave here immediately. We'll take care of her. We the Aoyama family will take care of this demon"

"It's too late for that," Kencana said while flapping one of her white wings upward, showing the spherical dome that covered the area. "This place is already cut off from outside" She smiled humorlessly. "I want to talk to you privately" Before she could continue on, a big ki ball exploded behind her, propelling her with its force. However, she managed to stop her fall with her wings. Kencana then turned toward the ki attack's origin only to see Shampoo with her hands outstretched in front of her, panting. "Hmm… an attack that tap one's soul. Very powerful at the expense of energy," She examined her hand that was touching her back to see her blood on it. "A very powerful attack indeed, despite it not being of chaos"

"I… we wouldn't let you off for what you did to Ranma," Shampoo said.

"Ranma?" Kencana asked. "Ah, must be the man that I kicked just now. Sorry about that"

"You're sorry?" Akane asked incredulously.

"Of course, not that I could avoid it. After all, he was trying to waste my time,"

"DAMN YOU!" Ukyo spat while dashing toward the winged woman with her battle spatula in hand.

Akane and Shampoo were about to follow her when Mousse held their shoulders. "Don't," he said.

"What's the hell is your problem?"

"The problem is there," Mousse said as he pointed at Ukyo being thrown away by Kencana's wings. "If we fail to attack without any plan, then we're planning to fail"

"What's your suggestion?" Shampoo asked.

"I can invoke a binding spell," Mousse said as he removed his glasses. "It would take me some time to set it up but I need the two of you to keep her busy for some time,"

Akane smiled. "No problem,"

"Tell the Aoyama sisters of our plan,"

"Huh, who are you to order me?" Shampoo said as she sprinted forward and launched a feign snap kick at Kencana who attacked back. The Amazon that quickly jumped toward Motoko and Tsuruko and had a brief conversation with the two of them"

Looking at Mousse, Akane asked, "Are you sure you can pull this off?"

"No,"

"That's comforting to hear," Akane said as she focused her energy on her right fist. Then she lunged toward Kencana.

Mousse quickly went through a series of intricate hands seals while incanting ancient Chinese incantation. While he was underestimated by all the younger Amazons in the village, including Shampoo, the elders were wary of him because of his abilities. Sure, he wore clothes with broad sleeve to hid weapons like knives or even a mace, but it was not the main reason. He wouldn't be born to the world if his father was a mere simpleton instead of a travelling exorcist priest who accidentally stumbled into his mother while travelling in the Amazon territory.

"Are you done yet?" Shampoo shouted while countering an energy bolt with her ki ball.

He ignored the question and instead focusing his attention on the steps. "_Hundred fifty more hand signals to go,"_ he said to himself

Akane was thrown to the ground by a very powerful force.

"_Eighty left"_

Shampoo, clutching her stomach while blood flow from her lips, fell to the ground.

"_Another forty"_

Motoko's eyes widened as her sword was broken. She was so distracted that she didn't noticed that Kencana was behind her, delivering a blow.

"_Ten more,"_

Tsuruko's gambit to protect her sister by launching a sword thrust at Kencana failed as the latter launched an attack that overwhelmed hers.

"_Now!" _**"MAKAI TENSHO! **(Hell resurrection)**" **Mousse shouted as multiple ancient seals appeared on around his body and began to attack Kencana.

Fifteen minutes later, Ranma woke up just in time to see someone flying toward him uncontrollably. He quickly caught the person and was shocked to see a bloodied Mousse.

"Too strong," Mousse gasped before coughing. "Even with me using my seal…" He didn't finish his words as he succumbed to unconsciousness.

Ranma gently put his fellow martial artist on the ground before standing up to look around. Everyone, except Kencana was scattered on the ground, injured and out cold, as their weakened kis told him. The said woman was standing in the middle field. She didn't get away unscathed, however as her right wing was broken and multiple wounds were on her body. Out of the numerous orbs that orbited around her, only a few blue and the red one remained. Ranma looked at her, gritting his teeth. "Did you do all this?"

"Of course not. They decide what position they end up"

"YOU…" Ranma growled as Unmei Kiriage materialized in his right hand while its sheath appeared in his left, making it appear as if he had just unsheathed the sword.

Kencana raised her eyebrows slightly at seeing the sword suddenly appearing in Ranma's hand. The single red orb around her moved to her left hand. "**Vole au paradis, Plume de lune" **(Fly to the heaven, feather of the moon). The red orb dispersed into red feathers which then gathered to form a red spear with white feather made out of energy as its tip. She then dashed toward Ranma, trying to stab him with Plume de Lune.

Ranma quickly blocked the attack using Unmei Kiriage to push the spear away before trying to hit Kencana with its sheath.

The winged woman quickly raised the spear to block the sheath. Then she quickly tried to stab Ranma's head in order to force him to abandon any attack that he was planning execute. However, Ranma dropped to the ground and kicked her feet, dropping her. Before she felt, she quickly stab the other end of the spear to the ground and used it to quickly launch herself and moved away from her adversary.

"You don't seem too though," Ranma said.

A small scowl appeared on Kencana. "That's because your friends have done their job. But I think it's too early for you to be boasting" She then stabbed her spear in Ranma's direction, Lightning sprout forth from her spear and hit the pigtailed martial artist.

"Ughh," Ranma grunted as the lightning shocked him. When it had receded, he almost dropped to his knees.

"Plume de Lune power is lightning and you have no way to win, not when your weapon is made out of metal"

"Don't count the chickens until they hatch," Ranma said while struggling to keep straight. Despite the bravado, he wondered how he could defeat the woman who had injured his friends. Then he felt a tingle in his mind. Ranma quickly jabbed his sword's handle into the sheath's opening. "**Nigan kyousei, Unmei kiriage **(Two eyes of justice, Unmei Kiriage)" he whispered as the items in his hands transformed into a weapon with red twin blades with a handle in the middle joining them together. Unlike a traditional Japanese nagitana, its blades were thinner and curved like katana blades, making it as if Ranma was holding some kind of a propeller.

"That looked impressive," Kencana commented. "But is it enough to defeat my attack?" she said she attacked using her lightning once more.

As if having a mind of its own, Unmei Kiriage's twin blades extended, forming a round shield. The lightning didn't even hit the barrier as it was pushed back toward Kencana who had to counter using another lightning attack. To his shocked, the two lightning bolts collided and caused various secondary lightning bolts to hit everywhere around them. To his relief, none of the bolts hit his friends.

"A repelling attack. I should've suspected that,"

"Why do you seem to treat this like a giant game? Can't you see that you're putting everyone here in danger?"

Kencana shrugged. "They were in danger even before I came here so even if they die, it's still the same,"

"I'M TAKING YOU DOWN!" Ranma shouted in rage as he ran toward her with his weapon.

She raised her spear to stop his attack while preparing to use the lightning attack at the same time.

At the very last moment, Ranma suddenly changed the position of Unmei Kiriage in his hand. "**Sashikorusu, Unmei kiriage"** (Pierce to kill, Unmei Kiriage)

Upon hearing Ranma's command, Kencana's eyes widened in shock.

A second later, blood dripped into the ground from torn flesh by sharp metal.

The winged woman's hand was holding Ranma's spear, red mist coming from it, as she stared into his eyes. "You're Aozora, aren't you?"

"I don't know what you're talking about,"

"Don't lie to me. The fact that your weapon can change into Chaos is proof enough,"

Her words caused the pigtailed martial artist to wonder how he managed to know how to transform his weapon and the knowledge behind its each form. "You're wrong. This form isn't Chaos, and I'm not Aozora. I'm Ranma"

One of Kencana's remaining blue orbs moved to her other hand and she crushed the orb. Instantly her hand glowed and she then tried to grab Unmei Kiriage using it. The spear glowed as well and she was thrown off a few feet from Ranma.

"Hey, are you alright? I didn't mean to blow you away," the pigtailed martial artist said, forgetting the fact that she was his enemy. Meanwhile his spear's edge, which was actually a smaller version of a katana, gave off a bluish hue.

Kencana looked at her still glowing hand and then at Unmei Kiriage. "This is IMPOSSIBLE!" she growled in anger.

"Wait. What the…"

"Shut up". Kencana looked around her before finally settling her gaze at Ukyo who was still unconscious. Before Ranma could react, she was already upon the girl and casted a spell to levitate her. She then touched Ukyo's face with her still glowing hand.

"**Sinar suria menyinari alam," **(The sun that shines the world)

"**Membasmi kegelapan, memadam bayang" **(That destroys the darkness, erases the shadows)

"**Batalkan perjanjian, putuskan kalam," **(Void the contract, sever the oath)

"**Yang menghubungkan jiwa dan pedang" **(That binds the soul and the sword)

Kencana's hand on Ukyo's face began to glow brighter and brighter as Ukyo began to wake up because of the pain she felt. Screaming, Ukyo tried to remove the hand with her own two hands but to no avail.

Ranma could only watch in anger as he knew that attacking Kencana would put Ukyo in danger.

After a while, the glow stopped and Kencana threw Ukyo, who had passed out from the pain, to the ground. "Damn, I wasted my energy on her," she spat. Kencana then turned her attention back to Ranma. "Come with me, Aozora. I will figure out how sever your connection with them"

"Like the hell I'll go with you willingly!" Ranma bellowed. "And let me remind you that I'm not Aozora!"

"You would rather allow yourself to be influence by Chaos?"

"All I know is that I wouldn't be influenced by you!" Ranma held his spear apart. "**Zan retsu giri, Unmei kiriage **(Fast violent slash, Unmei Kiriage)". His spear's edge rotated 90 degrees at its pivot, became longer and more curved. The edge's blue glow turned greenish and became brighter. It would have been obvious to any onlooker that Unmei Kiriage had transfigured once again, this time into a scythe.

Kencana shook her head. "As I thought, you're Aozora, although it's obvious that you have been totally corrupted by Chaos. Now I would like to ask you again, would you join me?"

Ranma lunged toward her, burning with anger that his scythe was aimed at her head. "NO!"

"It's a pity, really. I could have taught you how to use your weapon effectively" Kencana held her spear in front of her "**Deuxieme sceau liberation** (second seal release)"

The whole place was engulfed in an explosion so powerful that it alerted everyone in the Aoyama estate.

_A very young Ranma was jogging in the park by himself. Earlier on, he was jogging with his father, but then his father run off somewhere, while muttering something about food. Nevertheless, his father told him not to stop jogging and a still naïve and obedient Ranma followed his command. Now, after running nonstop for three hours, Ranma began to feel tired. But, he would have continued running if he hadn't heard a sob nearby._

_He walked toward the source of the sob to see a girl as young as him crying beside a tree._

"_Why are you crying?" he asked._

_The girl continued crying, but pointed to a branch on the tree. Ranma saw something shining there. Upon a closer look, it was a pendant. He briefly wondered how the thing got there before deciding to climb the tree. Upon reaching the branch, he called out._

"_Hey you down there"_

_The girl stopped crying and looked up._

"_This thing yours?"_

"_Yes" she answered, wiping her tears._

"_I can give it to you. But on one condition"_

"_What is it?"_

"_You must stop crying and smile"_

_The girl tried her best to control her tears and after a few seconds succeeded. She then smiled to him in gratitude._

"_You look cute when you smile"_

"_Is it true?"_

"_Yes, a martial artist never lie"_

_Then without warning the branch Ranma was on broke and he hit the ground quite hard. The girl quickly went to his side._

"_Are you all right?" she asked worriedly_

_In response, Ranma handed the pendant to her. "Heh! I think I just broke my leg. My father will be angry with this"_

_Then suddenly, the girl put her hand on his leg and a black aura appeared around the area. The boy was surprised, but did nothing. After a few seconds, the girl pulled away._

"_Your leg is okay now" she said, still smiling. "But don't tell anyone 'bout this, okay?"_

"_Okay"_

_The girl helped Ranma to stand up. He was astonished as it was as if his leg wasn't broken at all._

"_Ano.. may… may I know your name?"_

"_Saotome Ranma"_

"_Ranma…Wild horse. What a nice name" The girl giggled. _

"_What's yours?"_

_The girl's mouth opened to tell him her name. Ranma nodded. "I like that name. It suits you"_

"_Really?!"_

"_Of course!"_

_The girl hummed. "Why don't you cry when you fell of the tree just now?"_

"_My father tells me that martial artist don't cry n I am one"_

_The girl hugged him. "You're the best martial artist in the world, coz you helped me"_

"_No, I'm not the best yet"_

_The girl was quiet for a moment and then pulled his hand. "Let's go play at the playground together"_

"_But martial artist don't play in the playground"_

"_Don't be a stick in a mud. We can practice on lot of things on the playground. Let's go"_

"_I'm not a stick in a mud. I'm a boy. Whoa…" Ranma let himself to be led by her._

_They played and enjoyed themselves on the playground despite Ranma's earlier protest. After a while, they finally sit on the swings._

"_Ne, Ranma"_

"_What is it?"_

"_Will we meet again?"_

"_Sure"_

"_Then maybe I can buy you a strawberry ice cream cone as a reward for helping me. I can't buy you one now coz I didn't bring my purse with me"_

"_Promise?"_

_The girl put her hand on her heart solemnly. "If I break my promise, I will be swallowed by the monsters in my closet and under my bed"_

"_Whoa! Don't be too serious"_

"_For you, my promise must be serious" Then girl became quiet. "Ranma… I think I like you"_

_Ranma innocently kissed her cheek and she blushed. "I like you too"_

_Her face was shining with happiness. She got up and stood in front of him. "It is set then, the best martial artist in the world. I promise, when we grow up, I will take care of you forever" She bowed. _

_To Ranma's alarm, her image began to become fuzzy. _

"_I will take care of you forever"_

"WAIT!" he shouted, not willing her to disappear.

"Shh…" a feminine voice, clearly resembling the one in his dream said to Ranma, calming him despite the darkness that he was seeing at that time.

He then realized that the reason why he couldn't see was that there was someone's hand was covering his eyes. Ignoring the slight pain he felt, Ranma reached to pry the hand off his face.

"I wouldn't do that, Ranma. Your eyes have been injured," the girl cooed. "It's going to take some time,"

"Sorry. Seems like I trouble you again," he chuckled, "At least this time I don't fall off the branch,"

The faceless girl was quiet for a few moments. "So… you remember?"

"Yeah, along with what happened recently,"

"I see," the girl sighed.

"You're a meanie, you know that?" he complained.

"I don't know that the great Saotome Ranma is someone to whine,"

"You taught me," Ranma said while smiling. "How about the others?"

She coughed a little. "They're all right, although some suffer from slight wounds"

"That Kencana?"

"Left, probably thinking that all of you died,"

"That's good to know," Then his face hardened a bit, "Is it true that I'm a part of Chaos?"

The girl removed her hand off Ranma's face. "Perhaps,"

He opened his eyes slowly and saw that he could barely make out the blurry outline in front of him. "So, am I evil?"

"Well… I don't know about that. Are you?"

Ranma squinted his eyes, trying to focus but was unsuccessful. "Well, having someone claim that I'm someone else sure made me confident of myself"

"People call you names and you don't let them get to you,"

"This time it's different. When I attacked her using Unmei Kiriage, I could feel pure hatred flowing through me,"

The girl cupped Ranma's face gently. "Do you feel hatred right now? Do you hate me?"

Ranma felt his face began to burn from her touch. "Of course not! How can you say such a thing?"

Sighing, she turned away, "Looks like you've gotten the answer wrong,"

"What? How could I…"

She put her finger on his lips, immediately shutting him up. "Would it be evil to love someone, Ranma?" she asked quietly.

"Of course not! Love isn't evil and you know that"

"It's not a simple as you said, Ranma," she said before dipping her head to claim a kiss from him.

Ranma's world seemed to freeze in that short but long moment. Everything else around the two of them seemed to melt away as he reveled in the softness and taste of her lips. He didn't know how long they shared the kiss but when she withdrew, he felt intense desire for her.

"Ranma," she said as she touched his cheek gently, "Have a good rest"

"Huh?" Ranma uttered as he felt himself become groggy and his vision, which was just clearing up, began to fog once more.

The next time he opened his eyes, a man wearing traditional Japanese healer garb recognize was checking at him.

The man got up and when to the sliding door "He's come to," he shouted.

Ranma look around him to see that he was lying on a futon. Motoko was lying unconsciously on another futon few meters away from him. Then he heard a sound of feet thumping toward the room and a second later, the man was shoved away as Akane, Shampoo and Ukyo entered the room, with each of them wearing aprons and carrying some kind of pot. Of course, the one Akane was carrying looked more like a cauldron, but Ranma wasn't the one to care about cook wares. Ranma did what he normally did.

He groaned.

"Ok girls, our hero has just regain his consciousness, so there's no sense in the three of you killing him by clogging up his stomach" Tsuruko admonished them gently as she entered the room. She then caught a whiff from Akane's cauldron and immediately went to her. "Can I have a taste of that?"

Akane nodded while handing her the tasting saucer.

Tsuruko tasted the concoction a bit and her eyebrows rose slightly. "Say, I know that you wanted to give this to Saotome-kun, but may I have the whole thing?"

The Tendo girl looked at Ranma and then Tsuruko. "I guess,"

The Aoyama clapped her hands and two men appeared. "Please serve our guest with this morsel. I'm sure he'll appreciate this very well,"

"Yes, Aoyama-sama,"

After the two left, Tsuruko turned back to Akane. "Is it okay if you give us the recipe as well?"

"Heh heh. I just mix up the ingredients,"

"Then, we would like to ask your permission for us to copy what you did from the video recording,"

Akane was flabbergasted. "Well…"

Tsuruko misconstrued Akane's hesitation as an attempt to bargain. "Oh, silly me. Of course, we'll pay you 100,000 yen"

She could only nod as both Shampoo and Ukyo stared at her with jealousy.

"Okay, I guess that settle's that. Now then, Saotome-kun, how are you feeling?"

"Like being run down by a steamroller," he groaned. "What happen?"

Tsuroko gave a wan smile. "While fighting against Motoko, a sword managed to appear in your hand. Then the two of you traded your ougis and I had to step in to control the situation. But that didn't stop the two of you from destroying the whole area,"

"Ah, Unmei Kiriage," Ranma blurted.

"When did you get such a sword?" Shampoo asked.

Ranma shrugged, wincing as pain gripped his left shoulder. "Would you believe me if I said I got it from Nabiki instead of an ancient cat god that I freed from a boot?"

"Don't take us for a fool, Ranchan, of course we believe that you get it from a cat god," Ukyo said.

"Anyway," Tsuruko said drawing the attention to herself, "that's a good weapon you have there. It's the first time I see a sword that can morph into other weapons. I suggest that you take your time to master it though,"

"Yeah, I guess. It's kinda…"

"_ARGGH! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"_ an inhuman scream, slightly muffled but still clear, reverberated through the room. _"NO! GET THE THING OUT OF MY SIGHT!"_

"It seemed that you needed some practice with such weapon," Tsuruko said, nonplussed by the scream.

"_PLEASE, I BEG YOU! STICK MY HEART WITH A STEAK… NO! NO! A STAKE! A STAKE!" _the shout continued.

Ranma nodded, "Since it's quite rare for me to fight using such weapons,"

"_I PROMISE YOU THAT I WILL ABSTAIN FROM BLOOD FOREVER! " _

"Would you like our help with that?" Tsuruko said as she eyed Motoko who was regaining her consciousness.

"_I KNOW! I'LL HELP YOU HUNT OTHER VAMPIRES!"_

Ranma shook his head "Well, I have to decline. As you recall, my mother is an expert in weapons,"

"_I SWEAR TO GOD I'LL REPENT! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"_

"But if you want to brush up on your skill, you know where to find us," Tsuroko said.

"_NO! NOT THE WHOLE BOWL! IT'S INHUMAN!" _the voice shrieked with even more terror.

"Forgive me," Mousse, who entered the room after Tsuruko and has been keeping quiet the whole time until just then said, "quite 'lively' atmosphere' you have here"

Tsuruko sighed. "Tell me about it. Vampires like to whine a lot; that's why I really hate them,"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (21 March 2007)**

1. Firstly, I would like to apologize to those who have read Ever Stay Chaotic before as the same scene made was reused here. It's the only way I know to explain what follows after that without confusing those who haven't. Yes, it's that important as it provides you the confirmation to a 'certain' question that you may have in mind.

2. The story, despite its rather confusing parts, is actually straightforward. Granted, certain things has to be assumed: the NWC crew has improved (covered in ESC), but apart from that, not much has been revealed yet. Of course, some of the things don't make sense until later. For example, what's the part about Kencana's history has anything to do with her being in the present? The answer to that question would explain why Ranma's weapon has three modes of attacks and other things as well.

3. Yes, some of you may notice the Bleach influence in this story. For those who don't, don't worry as while it's certainly influenced by Bleach (and XXX-holic, Naruto, Ah My Goddesss, to name few), like I said before, it's quite independent and no knowledge of the said story is needed.

4. Thanks to fan-rei for providing the names for the attacks

5. If you haven't found out by now, yes, it's a RN story.


	8. The catalyst

A man with long ponytailed white length hair was sitting on a tree, watching the ensuing fight between Kencana and her opponents. Even though he was near the fighting area, they didn't notice his presence as he was actively repressing his power. He smiled as one of the fighters' battle spatula hit Kencana's hand and the winged woman counterattacked by punching her in the gut before she turned her focus to the girl with short blue hair.

The young girl put her hands in front of her and unleashed a multitude of blue energy waves that hit Kencana directly.

"Heh, what a messed up way to fight, sending a healer to draw the opponent's attention. That girl would have done better if she serves a supporting role" He clucked his tongue. "But the girl with short blue hair's power is pretty impressive despite the lack of focus," the man commented wistfully. "Then again, it's a good plan, really," he continued as Shampoo took the opportunity to unleash her own ki attack. Despite that, he shook his head, knowing very well that they would eventually be defeated by Kencana. It was to be expected, as her power was beyond their combined strength.

He had to applaud their tenacity as they keep fighting despite knowing that they couldn't defeat. At last the male Amazon managed to slightly injure Kencana by unleashing a powerful spell, a spell that would have defeated lesser demon lords.

But in the end, Kencana still won, just as he had predicted.

Then, to the man's surprise, the pigtailed boy that Kencana had defeated first began to stir and materialized a sword which he recognized as a Soul Cutter, a special sword that was an extension of its user's soul and have unique different combat ability.

When the boy executed his Soul Cutter's first release and it morphed into some kind of nagitana, the man had a smile on his face. It widened into a grin when the boy's twin swords transformed into a spear. The boy had really piqued his interest with the ability to use both good and evil infused weapons. He stood up, ready to intervene in the battle when it became apparent that Kencana wanted to initiate the contract between herself and the boy by force.

Of course, the boy surprised both he and Kencana once again as his weapon rejected Kencana's offering. Of course, her look when she found out about that had been priceless.

The man would have sat down again to watch the fight's conclusion but he suddenly felt a new presence appearing. While he normally detected people by their 'presence', he found out about the newcomer due to the lack of it. The man felt as if everything in his radius had come to a standstill. "Your presence is certainly surprising me, stranger. Did you come to watch the fight?" he asked in a friendly voice. "Are you here because of her, or you here for the boy?"

Nothing happened, as if there was no one there in the first place.

He sighed. "For you to control yourself… it's rather a bit unnerving. Very well, I'll take my leave since you obviously wouldn't want me to see me here," he said as magical runes began appear around him, character by character. "But be assured that we'll meet in the future,"

The man then reappeared at a beach thousands of kilometers away from Tokyo, next to a mansion. Then the main door opened and a butler in his fifties walked out and bowed. "Good afternoon, Master Schneider. I trust that you have enjoyed your trip," he said in British accent.

"Not really. I got chased away by someone,"

"Bully for him, sir. Would you like your normal Darjeeling tea?"

"That would be superb. I'll be at the garden," Schneider said. A few minutes later, the butler reappeared with a tea set few minutes and served it to Schneider. As Schneider took the cup and its saucer into his hand, he asked, "Anything happened while I'm gone?"

"Master Itachi had called regarding clan matters,"

Schneider took a sip, enjoying the warm golden liquid. As he put his cup down, he said, "Doesn't the uncouth man realize that he's wasting my time?"

"Yes, that he is"

"He and the Blessbringer clan he cherishes so much are too weak," he said before turning into another direction, "just like you are,"

"DAMN YOU, SCHNEIDER BLESSBRINGER!" a very large three horned demon growled as the smaller demons escorting it raised their claws and weapons threateningly. "I, Zirgo the demon lord of the Seventh Aclimentist will kill you, the betrayer to The Clause!"

"Shall I take care of them, Master?" the butler asked.

"Oh, heavens, no! Please get me a piece of pie, Smith," Schneider said before turning toward the demons, "Would you lot care for a cup of tea?"

"Fuck you!"

"I take it as a no, then. Blueberry pie, Smith,"

"Very good, sir" the butler said as he left the place.

When he returned with the pie, bodies of dead demons littered the whole garden, their blood seeping into the sandy ground. However, Schneider was sitting neither any sign of a fight nor blood stain on and around him, drinking his tea quietly.

"Impossible…" the demon lord croaked as its life seeped away. "What are you…?" it said before its eyes dulled and became lifeless.

Schneider put his cup down as his butler put the pie on the table. "Like you said, just now, old friend. Schneider Blessbringer," he said although knowing that the dead demon couldn't hear him.

"Shall I hang his head on the wall with the rest of your collection?"

"Hmm? Oh no, just throw the lot in the garbage. I wouldn't dream of marring my beautiful wall with its ugly and smelly head"

"Very well, sir" the butler nodded before going off.

Schneider looked at beach as a flight of seagulls flew by. "Your appearance is rather surprising, Kencana" he said. "But welcomed'; the boy's as well nonetheless," he said while grinning.

"In the end, Phantasm Moon would be mine,"

* * *

A towel-clad Nabiki was drying off her wet hair when she suddenly stiffened as her heartbeats became erratic. Someone was definitely standing behind her. Just a few moments had passed but to her, time had stretched to painful eternity, one that her trap… 

"Eh? What happened? I'm suddenly at home" Ranma asked to no one in particular as he stood behind her, facing the other way. "Hmm… Feels like Nabs is somewhere around here"

Nabiki dropped to her knees with one of her hands pressing her towel close to her body. "How?" she asked quietly as her body slowly trembles.

The pigtailed martial artist turned around and was nearly floored by the sight of a half naked girl in front of him. But he quickly controlled himself. Ranma had never seen Nabiki in such a state that it confused him. "Nabiki?"

"Please leave the room for a while"

"Why?"

The girl had recovered some of her wits to manage a small smirk. "I really don't mind if you want to watch me change, Saotome-kun"

Ranma felt his face burning. "It's o… okay, I'll go out" he said while slowly turning around and marched of the room, silently wondering why his own body felt a bit sluggish in doing so. He was so focused on the thought that he forgot the scythe with glowing blade that was in his right arm.

A few minutes Nabiki, wearing a yukata motioned him to enter the room. "So, you can start by telling me how do you ended up appearing behind me," Nabiki said seriously when he took a seat in front of her. "By the way, I didn't expect you to arrive until later this afternoon," she said while looking at the scythe he set next to him. "Maybe something to do with that?"

Chuckling nervously like he always did whenever he was in trouble, Ranma said, "You know, that's really surprising as I'm still confused by what happened. I was doing a practice slash while waiting for Akane and the others to get ready to return here when I accidentally ripped something," his face scrunched in confusion, "you may not believe me, but I ripped something out of nowhere and then poof! Here I am," He laughed. "That doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"The ability to cut through dimension,"

"What do you mean?"

"That scythe of yours, it can probably cut through dimensions. That's its ability,"

"The ability to cut through dimension?" Ranma asked.

"It is a very powerful method that allows you to move through obstacles and protection," Nabiki was about to add some more when she caught hold of herself, "Is this the first time you use it?"

"Now, it was yesterday, when I fight against the Aoyama…," Ranma didn't finish the statement as he suddenly had a thoughtful look. "waitaminute… that's not right. I didn't fight her using the scythe; I fought her without Unmei Kiriage either. It's like I was fighting against someone else… and then that faceless person" he said, missing Nabiki's slightly darkened look.

"Maybe someone erased your memory," Nabiki offered neutrally.

"Erased my memory?"

"Yes" Nabiki crawled closer to Ranma. "Hold on a minute," she said as she held Ranma's face and slowly pull his closer to hers.

Ranma swallowed hard as time began to stretch into an impossible infinity. Sure, he had been kissed before, but not in the same circumstances. Furthermore, to be kissed by her… He suddenly noticed the curvy, rosy lips in front of him and instinctively licked his own. Her face, her nose, few stray strands of hair on her cheek; everything was shouting for his attention. Even her closed eyes were tempting him.

That was why he nearly shouted in disappointment when she merely put her forehead on his instead of kissing him.

"A memory seal," Nabiki pronounced as she withdrew.

Ranma's attention was still riveted at somewhere else. "Huh?"

"A memory seal is used to block a certain memory by covering it with a false one"

Quickly tuning to her words, he said, "Oh, like that acupuncture technique Shampoo used on Akane,"

"Saotome-kun…"

"Yes?"

Nabiki brought her face closer to Ranma. "Did you think that…," she said as she put her hands on his face once more, "I was going to kiss you just now?"

"No, of course not!" The answer was given a bit faster than what would be considered as normal.

"Really?" Nabiki's face was a mere inch from his. "Are you telling the truth, Saotome-kun?" she breathed.

"I th… no I don't think about that at all!"

The middle Tendo girl was quiet for a moment before breaking into a grin and pushed Ranma away. She then began to giggle uncontrollably. "You should have looked at your own face just now. It was hilarious!"

Realizing that he had been had, he pouted. "Well, excuse me for being sincere and stupid enough to fall for your tricks"

"You're too kind for you own good," Nabiki said as she tried to control her laughter. She managed to form a smile. "That's what I love about you so much,"

While the statement was said in jest, it had the effect of making Ranma's heart beat skip. Then he realized that she was joking again.

After Nabiki stopped laughing, she continued, "I'll help you remember about the fight yesterday," She then put a hand on his forehead. "Close your eyes. This will sting a bit," Her hand began to emit green glow before it changed into dark green. After a minute, she removed her hand. "Open your eyes. Do you remember anything?"

"Yes. It's… the fight… everyone… Ucchan"

Nabiki held up her hands. "Whoa. Slow down. Maybe it's better for you to just calm down and perhaps we can talk about it later," Before Ranma could protest, she pushed him out of the room. "Now, get out before anyone sees us together and jumps into an undesirable conclusion," After she had closed the door and felt him leaving, she let herself drop to the floor, breathing heavily. "That was a very close call" She then smiled softly. "You know, Ranma, not everything is a lie"

A few hours later, in the middle of Nerima Park a magic circle appeared, giving off white glow as it did. Then, it began to change as the symbols on it began to rearrange themselves. After the change had finished, the resulting magical circle's glow grew darker and darker. A figure who was watching the transformation grinned. The barrier that was erected by Kimiko Tendo to protect Nerima has been twisted to do the opposite thing. Things would get livelier soon.

It was time to put the plan in motion.

The morning after, Ranma found herself, as the old lady managed to splash him on the way to the place, wondering why she was summoned there. Aside from that, she could hide her awe at the size of the place. For the old mummy to build a training dojo that size underneath Nekohanten… no wonder he couldn't see the Amazon training.

"Are you okay, Ranchan? You look dazed," Ukyo's voice caused him, er, her to look at her.

"So, old mummy… OUCH!" Ranma said as he rubbed his head. "Why are we here?"

"Do show respect to the elders, boy," Cologne said as she grimaced at the sight of her broken staff. The boy's head wasn't forgiving to the delicate item. She sighed and threw it away, wondering whether she should order the one she saw advertised on television the night before. It was made of tungsten alloy and would certainly last a bit longer than her wooden one. "To tell you the truth, I was hoping you would tell me, since I received a note to let everyone into this dojo," she said as she gestured around her. Although it was located underneath the Nekohanten restaurant, the place certainly didn't look cramped and dark. If any, it was more spacious and well kept than the Tendo dojo.

"What do you mean, you old… chronologically progressive Fulica cristata?" Ukyo asked.

"You know, it would have been better if you just use 'old coot'," Cologne told her drolly.

"So, old coot, the deal is that each one of we received a note to come here," Ranma said.

"Lay off the name-calling, sonny. Anyway, it's supposed to be 'us',"

"Aw, we know that already. Just now you told everyone about that," Just after she spoke, warm water wet her head, triggering her transformation back into a young man.

"Now, I'm expecting my reward, hubby dearest," Shampoo said as she glomped him.

Ukyo, not satisfied with playing second fiddle entered into the argument with the female Amazon on who will get him as a human-size plush toy.

"If it okay with you, I will explain the reason all of you receive a note to come here before pandemonium breaks loose," a feminine voice said from behind Cologne.

"You were lucky that I didn't turn around and snap your neck by mistake, Tendo-san," The elder Amazon was shocked by the fact that a mere teenager, inexperienced at martial art some more, managed to sneak up behind her. "It would have been less impolite to just announced your uninvited arrival,"

"True," Nabiki conceeded. "But you have to admit that it would have been easier to convince everyone of what I have to say by making, how do I say this, a flashy entrance? Or would you prefer the 'magical princess' approach?"

Cologne turned toward the middle Tendo girl who stood at her spot, arms crossed. "Ho? And what do you have that will explain what happened to everyone here on their trip?"

Nabiki smiled wanly. "Maybe I can start by helping you explain the secret behind your village's foundation and the real rational behind the so-called 'Marriage Laws'; by extension why you're so fixated on getting Saotome-kun here back to the village. Or would you rather explain to them instead?"

There were few things that could surprise the wise matriarch; this was one of them. "How do you know?"

"Simple. You didn't exactly object Shampoo from going when she told you that she was going to follow everyone to Shinmeiryu school of kenjutsu, right?"

"Yeah... That's strange. Great grandmother did tell me to try to learn from them," the said girl mused.

"It because the school shared the same purpose as our village," Cologne said quietly. That is to prevent the resurrection of the being known by the name The Great Devastator. You really surprise me once more, Tendo Nabiki,"

"I take that as a compliment,"

Chuckling a bit upon hearing the reply, Cologne continued her explanation on the village's history. Unlike general perception the Amazon village was established by a male warrior who settled with his family at the site where The Great Devastator tainted the land in order to watch for any sign of her resurrection and was tasked to warn everyone when that happened. However, due to a twist of fate, he had only daughters, seven of them. Even though he had yearned for a male heir to take over his responsibility, in the end, he trained his daughters to take the job. Fiercely dedicated to the oath to protect the place, the daughters didn't move to other places when he and his wife died. Even when they married, they brought their families to stay there as well.

"That's why there are seven members in the Council of Elders!" Mousse exclaimed after the wise matriarch finished her explanation,"

Cologne nodded. "The marriage law, as all of you already know, has two purposes. First, to find a powerful warrior to marry into the tribe and by extension, to take the responsibility as the watchers as well. Two, to force our warriors to practice. All right, Tendo Nabiki, I've pretty much explained my village's stake in the son-in-law. Now you can explain why you're here,"

Nabiki traced some symbols in the air. "Release," she chanted and everyone except Cologne, Ranma and herself almost collapsed to the ground, all the while clutching their heads in pain. "I'm sorry but whatever all of you are seeing right now is what happened during your trip to Kyoto,"

"Wait. Are you saying that you're the one who sealed my memory along with them?" Ranma asked.

"Correct,"

"Then…"

"Hush, Saotome-kun. I didn't lie to you. All I said was that someone had erased your memory; I clearly remember not denying about putting the seal in the first place," She then addressed everyone else, "Sorry for sealing your memory by accident, but this ready to deploy spell I used on you have an area effect; I intended the spell to affect the Aoyama sisters in the first place. Guess the cheap version couldn't target particular subjects compared to the more expensive ones. But it served the purpose, yes?"

"Like hell!" Mousse cursed. "You're not the one got his memory erased,"

"It wouldn't be good for the Aoyamas to find out about the incident, at least not yet," Turning toward Cologne, she said. "Your village had failed to stop the resurrection. She's already alive for quite some time and they," she said while gesturing to everyone around the two of them, "fought her in Kyoto,"

Cologne closed her eyes, trying to control her emotion. "I see. Then we have failed our duty as the overseers,"

"It's none of your fault really. Now, what makes you think that Kencana, or as known as The Great Devastator to your village will come to live at the spot where she tainted the land?"

"So where is she right now?" Ranma asked.

"Closer than you think,"

Ranma looked around and settled on Mousse, giving a suspicious look at the man's crotch area.

"Not _that_ close, Saotome-kun," Nabiki said drolly. "But close. Continuing with the explanation, one Kimiko Aoyama managed to contain her power ten years ago at the cost of her life,"

"Aoyama Kimiko? That sounds like the clan in Kyoto," Mousse commented.

"And that land is Japan? Ukyo asked, knowing where this will lead to,"

The elder matriarch nodded. The clan that inherited the Shinmeiryu technique, the Aoyama clan is related to our village.

"So, if they found out that she's here, then they would certainly try to avenge Kimiko's death. And when a prominent clan is seen mobilizing most of its members to a particular place, other clans would take notice. In the end, everyone will come here, which would certainly benefit Kencana. By the way, by proxy, my family's also connected to the your village, Elder Cologne," Nabiki said.

"What do you mean, sis?"

"When Aoyama Kimiko got married, she adopted her husband's family name,"

"And her husband's family name is?" Ranma asked.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Tendo,"

"Hey, that sounds like your family name," Ranma remarked.

"Of course, it is, you idiot," Nabiki said a bit acidly, frustrated by his slow pickup. "She's our mother,"

"Oh,"

"Right, I guess I better to continue. It turned out that Kencana wasn't reborn with her full power. In order to fully regain her power, one of the things that she needed is power,"

"Does this have something to do with the disturbance I felt?" Cologne asked.

"Yes. You see, all throughout history Nerima had been the nexus of chaos, due to the fact that Kencana died here. As a result, it attracts many that seek to harness its power. This was rectified by my mother twenty years ago when she and my father moved here by erecting a very powerful seal, on that encompasses the whole town. It functions as a very powerful demon trap, killing any ethereal entities apart from those that was already inside the array or those that come from the underworl..."

"That sounds a bit impossible to me," Ranma said with disbelief.

"So says the guy who turns into a girl when he got wet,"

"About the seal," Mousse interjected, "what happened to it?"

"My mentor told me that the seal was modified to allow the monsters to enter. Now, the lowest level demons have already entered the city. Eventually more and more powerful ones will come here, no doubt attracted by the chaos energy," Nabiki smiled. "But when they come here, Kencana would be waiting to kill them,"

"That doesn't seem bad," Akane remarked.

"Demons are entities that have a lot magical energy or mana as referred to in RPGs,"

"That means, she can collect their energy for her own use. And I can see why you don't want the other magic users to know about this. If they come here, then she can easily harvest their mana. How do you come to possess so much information?" Cologne asked, curious.

"I inherited my mother's knowledge as well worked for the Dimension Witch,"

"I've heard the name before. It seems that she charges exorbitant price for her service. I can see the similarities,"

_"Thank you, _elder. Now, here's the situation. More and more demons will come into Nerima, no doubt attracted by the seal. While we can tell people to move out, I honestly don't think that they will listen to us. Besides, with few exceptions, the demons would certainly go toward the seal in order to feast on the power contained inside it. But..."

"But we have to take care of them just to be on the safe side," Shampoo said.

"Not me," Nabiki said, "you,"

"Why not you? I've seen how you fight that classmate of yours and she's quite powerful," Ranma questioned.

"It wouldn't good to rely on me. Besides, you have just revealed what supposed to be a secret. You will pay for that, Saotome-kun"

Ranma cringed.

"Um... I don't want to interrupt but I think I can't help all of you in this," Ukyo said with a sad face. "Unlike Akane and Shampoo, I didn't exactly train myself and it showed during the fight,"

"Ask your father about your clan's heritage and you might learn something," Cologne said.

"What do you mean?" she said while turning toward Nabiki.

"10,000 yen," Nabiki said with her hand outstretched. Upon receiving the incredulous look from everyone she shrugged. "Sorry, I've been giving freebies lately that it's bothering my conscience,"

"I think all of this information is a bit heavy for us. I'll tell Miss Daidouji about her family later. Shampoo, why don't you and Mousse bring them to the dining room?" Cologne said, the meaning of the statement obvious; they were to continue their talk during lunch.

Shampoo counted everyone to estimate how much food would be needed and then doubled it, since Ranma was present. "Come, I'll show you the way," she said as a graceful hostess.

Everyone began walking toward the staircase that would bring them out of the underground chamber and into the restaurant, with the exception of Cologne and Nabiki.

"WHERE AM I?" Ryoga's anguished voice called out from somewhere in the restaurant.

"Like a clock work," Cologne muttered. "Why now?" she asked Nabiki when she was sure that everyone was out of earshot. "You could have reveal your secrets to us earlier but didn't. Even your younger sister didn't know the secret, if her expressions were of indication,"

"Because I miscalculated. Before, there was no need as even if she was reawakened, she would be quite weak,"

"But you didn't undo the seal on their memory willingly,"

Nabiki sighed. "True. Saotome-kun's power manifested early and even now it's growing at a tremendous rate. If this goes on, it wouldn't matter if I seal his memory or not as she and the others will certainly be attracted to him,"

"Sounds like him all right. But why Son-in-law?"

"Simply put, his energy has three elements: orderly creation, orderly destruction and chaos. You can say that he's like a living myth for having the three simultaneously. However, being that makes him a prime candidate to become a catalyst,"

"A catalyst?"

"Yes, or in other words, the key to power," Nabiki stopped for a moment, "or the power itself,"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (20 July 2007) **

1. It's been a while since I updated but seems like I lost the spirit somewhat. Losing an earlier version of this chapter sure sucks. I put off writing this to wait for a better motivation and poof! Few months has passed, four to be exact. Oh well. Seems like I'm not dead yet though

2. I would be happy to hear any kind of comments from you people.


	9. Memory of nobody

From her suite that was located on the thirtieth floor of the hotel she was staying, Kencana looked into a globe of energy that floated in front of her. In it, she could see her Aozora, or Ranma as the name he went by at that time fighting together with his group against the demons that were drawn toward the middle of the seal. Seeing enough, she made a dismissing gesture with her hand and the globe disappeared.

Aozora was wasting his time with them when he could have been together with her.

Kencana thought about whether she should get rid of them. She dismissed the idea because she realized that if she did that, he wouldn't cooperate with her. In fact, he may even cooperate with the Blessbringers or even the bastard Schneider himself. That would put her at a severe disadvantage. She needed him to acquire Phantasm Moon and because of that she needed him to be receptive to her persuasion. The only thing that she had going for her when it came to him was the fact that Phantasm Moon would only appear if they united. So, even if the Blessbringers or Schneider managed to convince him to go against her, they wouldn't be able to acquire it.

But if she managed to convince him to be with her, then victory shall be hers.

The main problem was how to do it. Aozora, no, Ranma would be wary of her should she approached him. Perhaps if she turned herself into one of those whores that hung around him, perhaps it would work, provided that the woman with short brown hair wouldn't be around to stop her. Even until then, Kencana was still wary of that girl. When the girl came to prevent her for killing Ranma, she could feel that something about the girl that was a bit off. That feeling was so strong that Kencana couldn't resist the feeling that the girl was a major player in the event that she herself had orchestrated. Because of that, she decided to let the girl, whose name was Nabiki, live so that she could satisfy her curiosity. Then, she could kill her.

For the moment, Kencana would satisfy her curiosity by studying the girl's little sister. Summoning the globe once more, Kencana looked at the girl with fiery blue hair fighting against her opponent. Perhaps watching the girl named Akane would tell her more about Nabiki. In fact, if she was fortunate, she could find out certain information on Ranma that will benefit her. Yes, studying Tendo Akane would be a prudent step to take.

The said girl was locking her eyes with a creature, in her opinion, was grotesque at best. Despite that, she didn't hate it because it was ugly. In fact, the creature could be considered as somewhat beautiful, for a demon that was. Three pointed horns adorned its head while its sharp claws gave a threatening aura to it. What made Akane hate the monster was the fact that it reminded Akane of the western vampires she read in the horror fictions. She hated those creatures, not because they were scary. It was because the authors always made them too powerful to the extent of being godlike. Able to seduce whoever they wanted, able to transform into other animals or even people and inhuman strength; all the marks of demigods who seemed to be perfect. Of course, so perfect that they wouldn't even dream of eating garlic, lest their breath suffers, or them becoming nocturnal to avoid the risk of getting skin cancer. No wonder they have normal folks chasing them with cheap wooden stakes; they surely annoyed the hell out of everyone.

Compare them to the eastern ghosts and it could be seen which evil beings were superior. The vampires and other western apparitions always live in their run down shack somewhere in god-forsaken place, waiting idiotic hermit wannabes to come there to be their food. In contrast, the Asian ghosts had long gone high tech. Look at the small girl living in the video tape and that other one maintaining its own 'killer' homepage. Now, they were scary.

The demon in front of her growled, reminding Akane of its presence. While she didn't care for the creature, it remained a painful truth that she had foolishly volunteered to fight its kind. Of course, the motivation did rise from Shampoo's loud proclamation that she would fight beside her 'airen' and Ukyo's subsequent announcement that as Ranma's 'cute fiancée', it was her duty to fight as well. Akane did admit to herself that she joined because she was jealous. However she also did it to help protect the Nerima that she loved.

The creature took a step toward her.

"Um, can anyone help me her?" she asked weakly.

Ranma, who was moving at great speed to evade his own attackers, replied, "Sorry, I'm facing eight over here,"

"I would be happy to have the sustenance manufacturing facility disintegrator feel indebted to me. Sadly I'm also busy here," Shampoo said. "HIYAA!" she shouted as she delivered a snap kick.

Swallowing slowly, she turned toward her opponent. The creature had closed the distance between of them.

Akane took another step back.

The creature still move toward her.

"S... Stay back!" Akane commanded.

Yet the creature approached her, claws raised menacingly.

"I'm warning you!"

The demon merely showed her its razor edge teeth in response to the threat.

"I'm a fully trained martial artist…"

The threat fell on deaf ears as the demon kept getting closer. When it felt that it was close enough to attack, it lunged toward her with a killing intent.

A giant shoe squashed the demon, stopping its attack prematurely.

Akane raised her foot to look at gob at her shoe sole. "Damn, now my new shoe is already dirty, and I just bought them last week,"

"At least you already know well enough not to swat them when they managed to get on your body," Ukyo said, She then slammed the flyswatter in her hand at another demon that landed near a tree branch. "Last night I have to soap myself for an hour to get the smell off,"

"Oh, you really get the smell on you? I didn't know that. To tell you the truth though, I didn't notice the difference between its smell and yours," Shampoo commented haughtily, sending Ukyo into a seething fit.

"Ranma," Ryouga said while using his fingers to flick a midget-sized demon away. "When you describe this to me, I would have thought that this is a very BIG problem,"

"Hey, they're demons. Even the mummy said so," Ranma said nasally, his hand pinching his nose to avoid smelling the stench.

Back in the Nekohanten restaurant, Cologne sneezed.

"I could have filled my time doing something that's slightly more productive, such as kicking your butt!"

"Thank you for ranking me that high, bacon breath,"

"Pleasure's mine, girly boy and need I remind you that Roger Bacon is quite well known,"

"Who the heck is that?"

"Don't know, saw his name in an encyclopedia somewhere,"

"What are you doing?" a feminine voice break the tension between the two of them.

Ranma, the first to turn away, was surprised by the person who said that. "You're that powerful magician who got her ass kicked by Nabiki that day,"

"Chisa?" Akane asked incredelously. "She is working for sis,"

"I thought Nabiki had agreed to my request to fight her in secret. Yes, Akane I'm the one who fought her and got my ass kicked but hey, now the two of us are cool," Chisa said, wanting to prevent possible hostility from brewing.

"So, why are you here?" Ukyo asked.

"I don't want to be a party pooper. However I don't think you should waste your time dealing these demons. They are so weak that even animals can take care of them,"

"Every little thing helps," Shampoo countered. "Ouch," she cried as one of the demons used its trident to poke her ankle.

"Yeah, and it's good for training," Ukyo said in support.

"Yeehaaa! What a haul! What a haul!" came the familiar voice as its owner passed through the group followed by a mob angry women.

Chisa thumbed in the direction where the chased person ran. "Then, maybe you can help me catch _that_ demon. He stole my panties and I need everyone's help to catch him,"

Although all of them went after Happosai, their efforts to catch him were in vain. Trying to search the old geezer in the town was like trying to locate for the cockroach that had managed to hide itself in the kitchen; you knew it was there, but have no idea of its exact location. Of course, there are some differences, one being the fact that cockroaches weren't as gross.

After finally accepting the fact that they couldn't trace the perverted master, they broke off, each one going his or her own way. As for Ranma, he returned to his own home for the sword training that his mother insisted him to take. That was how Ranma got a bump on his head an hour later, due to a perfect hit by Nodoka's bamboo sword. His mother was a slave driver when it comes to kendo training… and everything else. With the limiter bracelets that he got from Nabiki limiting his power, he had to resort to pure skills to win over his mother in their kendo sparring match. And Nodoka Saotome was only too happy to show her son how severely unskilled he was in the sword fighting.

"I did allow your father to train you in unarmed combat to prepare you for the worst though I don't think he would do so to the extent of neglecting your weapons training. I guess, I'll have to whack him tonight,"

The young martial artist winced at that comment, not seeing the strange gleam in her eyes. It was a good thing as well since it wouldn't do for him to know about his parents were into such kinky things.

"Ranma, do you know why you shouldn't follow your father's stand on weapons?"

"Yes. In martial arts, there is no such thing as fighting with or without weapons. Everything that a martial artist can and will use is considered as a weapon, including parts of his body," Ranma answered while remembering about the conversation he had with Nabiki. She had pointed out that if he insisted on not using any weapons, he would end up not being able to fight. The middle Tendo girl also listed out some instances where he used his curse as a weapon to secure his victories. For his part, he had accurately identified her brain and her tongue as her most dangerous weapons, although he was quite sure that she could use her look effectively as well.

"Very good. Flexibility in all fields is very important for a martial artist,"

"Talking about martial artist… I didn't know that my great grandmother is a swordswoman. I thought that only great grandfather knew kendo,"

Nodoka laughed. "If grandmother Kaoru wasn't a swordswoman, they would never have met, although their story is a bit cheesy. I mean, who would have ever thought that a mere kendoist would challenge the famed Hitokiri Battousai?" She put her hands on her cheek and giggled like a school girl. "Ah, so romantic,"

"Um…," Ranma uttered while trying to think of a way to bring out his mother out of the dreamy state she was in. He knew that his great grandfather Himura Kenshin was known by that name due to the fact that he was a powerful assassin that employed a dangerous sword technique. However, he somehow resented the fact that his mother would always over romanticize everything. "Aren't you're supposed to tell me about the technique I'm learning right now?"

"Oh, right," Nodoka said while laughing it off. "We can always talk about this later. Right now, we'll be focusing on the Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasaryu,"

Ranma nodded. "Graceful Wing of Dream. I remembered you saying that it's the evil version off Kamiya Kasshinryu, going against almost all of the said sword principles,"

"Correct. Kamiya Kasshinryu emphasizes non lethal and defensive attacks while Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasa focuses on total offensive that seeks to kill," Upon seeing her son shivering, Nodoka shook her head. "Don't worry, although you will learn the principle of the ougi, you probably don't have to go through it,"

"I feel relieved to hear that,"

"Before you can start learning the Yume no Tsubasaryu, I want to see your mastery of Kasshinryu first. Go through its katas first,"

"Yes, mum,"

"Sensei," Nodoka corrected as she watched her son began performing the katas. Somehow, watching him go through the same motion that she did years before, caused her to remember the memories that she had of a friend, a friend that had long departed the world.

_A teenage Nodoka walked toward the main door, carrying her reverse edge sword. _

_A Shinto priestess walked up to her. "May I help you?" _

_"I would like to challenge the master of the Shinmeiryu to a sparring match," _

_The priestess was surprised by the proclamation that it took her a moment to answer. "I'm sorry. The master is quite busy right now," _

_"In that case, why don't I fight her, Masako?" another voice interrupted as another girl approached them. _

_"I don't think a wayward person like you would be able to represent the school, Kimiko-san," the priestess said disdainfully. It was obvious that she didn't really like the newcomer. _

_Kimiko shrugged. "Maybe you're right. However, since our guess is already here and the master is quite busy, I would be more than happy to take her place," She then turned toward Nodoka and bowed. "Aoyama Kimiko. Please to meet you," _

_Nodoka responded in kind. "Himura Nodoka," _

_The Aoyama girl smirked, surprising Nodoka. "Now, with all the important formalities have been observed and now can be put aside, are you ready to eat some dirt?" _

She watched as Ranma executed a jump, landing and executing a stab, all in a graceful manner. Almost. "Ranma, your stance before you stab just now is a bit unstable. The distance between the two feet needed to be widened a bit,"

"Yes, mu… sensei,"

"Redo the whole sequence,"

_A twenty something Nodoka shared a laugh with the companion sitting beside her. "I can still remember that fight," _

_"You should, since I beat you," Kimiko said in jest. _

_"You know, until today I'm surprised that someone from Aoyama family can be quite… you know, easygoing?" _

_Kimiko had a faraway look on her. "Yeah, I guess I'm the black sheep of the family," Before Nodoka could apologize for bringing it up, she grinned, "That doesn't matter. What matters is that I spent my live with my family and you," _

_"I guess…" Nodoka said, not sure what to say. _

_"By the way, Nodoka, I'm keeping track of how many times we fought," Kimiko held out a hand. "Five times," _

_"Yes?" _

_Grinning, she said. "And you lost to me all the time!" _

_"Don't remind me of that!" _

_"Tell me something, Nodoka. You fought me using Hiten Mitsuryugiryu three times and Yume no Shiyotaka Tsubasaryu two times. I've seen you execute the former's ougi twice but _

_have yet to see the latter's. Are you purposely keeping it a secret?" _

_"No, I'm not. Actually, it's not that I didn't want. I can't," _

_Kimiko caught a red ball that was thrown by a small girl. "Good throw, Akane!" she said encouragingly while returning the ball to Akane who then rejoined her friends. "It's a shame. I wanted to see the attack. Maybe you would be able to defeat me with that," _

_"Sorry," _

_"Don't worry about that. If any, I'm the one who's supposed to be sorry for trying to force you," After a few bouts of uncomfortable silence, she continued, "Hey, I have an idea! Your son over there," Kimiko said while pointing to a boy running after a man, "Ranma, right? Why don't we match our children together? You know, maybe he can marry Akane or Nabiki or Kasumi," She then giggled at the boy's antic. "He's so manly. Maybe he can marry all of my daughters?" _

_"Kimiko! How can you say such things? It's…. it's improper!" _

_"Come on, it is mothers' dream to have womanly daughters and manly sons," _

_"Um…" _

_"Admit it, you're thinking the same thing but too shy to admit it," she said accusingly. _

"That's enough, Ranma," Nodoka said while handing her son a towel to wipe his sweats. "We'll continue tomorrow,"

"I can still do it!" Ranma said, trying to protest. "And I want to start with the lessons already,"

"I know. Since you have yet to perfect katas, teaching you the techniques without mastering the basics first may cause the effectiveness to be reduced. For example, just now your jump was premature, causing your movement to be telegraphed. So a well prepared attacker could have come up with a suitable counter,"

"Then, it would be better to practice,"

"No. You might reinforce the mistake by accident. It's better to do things right the first time. So, it's still better to continue later," Before Ranma could protest, Nodoka pushed him toward the house. "Now, why don't you go take your fiancées out for a change?"

"Do I have to?" he whined.

"Yes. The ability to read your opponents' intent from their body language can be quite useful. The principle is the same, whether it's martial arts or dates," Nodoka said as she handed her son some money. "We'll see how much you'll pick up from the date tomorrow during practice,"

Ranma's eyes widened before his expression became more determined. "Okay," he quipped as he accepted the money.

Nodoka mentally sighed at her son being so easy to manipulate. Connect everything to martial art and he would dive into it like a man possessed. It was a trait her husband and her had. She hoped that he wouldn't be too obsessed with it. Like Kimiko once reminded her, it was important maintain one's balance in life. Apart from martial and 'marital' art aspects that she expected Ranma to master, there was another reason why Nodoka asked Ranma to ask his fiancées out on a date. One of them may be feeling a bit melancholic that day.

She then began to go through a kata, one that only the master of the school would be able to perform. As her body automatically went through the honed motions, her mind wandered back to the day when it rained blood and tears in Nerima.

_"Congratulations, Nodo-chan," a bloodied Kimiko said while smiling weakly, holding to the sword that was embedded in her chest. "You have managed to master the final ougi. You're the master of your school now. I guess if we fight, I'll surely be defeated," she said before coughing some blood, "not that we have the chance anymore," _

_"Not like this! I don't want it like this!" Nodoka said while sobbing. _

_"Shh… Your tears are making my cloth wet," _

_"Idiot! How could you be saying such thing at times like this?" _

_"Nodo-chan," Kimiko said as she struggled to put a hand on her best friend's cheek. "Please promise me one thing," _

_"Anything!" _

_"Two things actually. Deliver my sword to my ancestral home and don't blame yourself for what happened today," she then turned toward a faceless girl. "You too, hime-chan. Don't blame yourself and auntie Nodoka, 'kay?" _

_The girl, who was silently crying nodded her head. Nodoka, however, was a different case. She didn't want to accept such a request. "How could you ask me to do that?" _

_"Remember, Nodoka, you had no choice. When I invoke the chaos spell, I wasn't able to maintain its stability and lost control of myself. You had saved the city… and me as well. Please don't sully that. Promise me that," _

_Nodoka nodded. _

_As the light in her eyes slowly becoming dim, Kimiko tried to smile once more. "I always consider you like a sister," _

_"Me too," Nodoka said as she cradled her friend. It was too late as Kimiko had stopped breathing. _

Nodoka finished her kata with a thrust at an imaginary enemy and remained in that position while droplets of water started dropping on the ground beneath her. "I'm sorry, Kimiko-san, but as usual, on this day, the anniversary of your death, I would like to be a bit selfish,"

At the same time, Nabiki was standing in front of her mother's grave, putting her palms together, praying. If the rest of her family found out that she was visiting her on that day, they would have scolded her for being hypocritical. It was nine years ago when she had a quarrel with the rest of her family, telling them that they shouldn't visit Kimiko's grave on the anniversary as it would show that they had never moved on. She reminded them that her mother wanted everyone to be happy. In the end, Nabiki had managed to persuade everyone that they would only visit Kimiko on joyous occasions to share the news with her instead of going there when they felt sad.

However, she wasn't there because she felt sad. Instead, she was there because she wanted to say something important. "Mother, the seal has been corrupted and what you wanted to prevent had started," Nabiki said while closing her eyes.

_A seven year old Nabiki looked at Nodoka cradling her limp mother. "Auntie, please move away from my mother. I will trigger the seal," _

_Nodoka, who was still crying raised her head "What do you mean?" _

_"The spell needs her blood to work," _

_"How could you say that?" The woman pointed to her mother's body. "This is your own mother," _

_"I know. That's why I must carry out her wish," Nabiki said as she put a hand on the woman's forehead. _

_"I would not let you…," Nodoka couldn't finish her words as she fell unconscious. _

_Bowing, Nabiki said, "Sorry for doing that. I can't let you die because you touch her when the spell triggers. Mum wouldn't like that," She dragged Nodoka's body away, which was a very difficult task for a small girl to accomplish. Despite that, she managed to do it after struggling for more than ten minutes. "I'm sorry for making Ranma-kun's forget too," she said to Nodoka while wiping her sweat, "I had no choice. I also want you to forget having to kill mum although I am not sure that is a good thing or not," _

_Nabiki reached into her blouse's pocket and brought out seven marble-sized green orbs. She crushed them and her body was bathed in light as blue runes appeared all over the right side of her body while red runes covered the other side. Then the middle Tendo girl slammed her hands on the ground and a pillar of light appeared, only to expand to cover the whole town. But to normal inhabitants, they didn't notice the light; they only felt a slight tingle when it engulfed them. More observant people would have commented that it was the first time they ever saw rainbow appear in the town. No one knew what really happened save for select few. _

Nabiki opened her eyes. "Like you predicted, Ranma is one half of the chaos, a significant part of the prophecy that warned about Kencana's resurrection and how she would destroy the world. Of course, like you told me, past reincarnation wouldn't affect how the person will turn out in his or her current live. She smiled softly. "Not that Ranma is a believer of fate. He follows his own path as much as I follow mine. I realized that fact even when we're still small,"

Wind blew and she looked up, watching some dry leaves being carried by it.

"You know, mum, until now I do wish that the paths will eventually converge. Perhaps that wish is clouding my judgment even now, well, judging from the kisses that I've been stealing from him," She let out a long breath. "Maybe I'm similar to you in that respect. I remember you telling Kasumi and I about your exploits with dad before he courted you. We're afraid to take the initiative to reveal our feelings, aren't we?" Nabiki kneeled and put a hand on the slab of stone that mark her Kimiko's grave.

"I know that this sounds like me trying to run away from my feelings, but mother, I really can't do it,"

* * *

1

* * *

**Author's note (4 August 2007) **

1. I updated this chapter faster than I updated my other story. Hmm… I hope that it's not a recurring trend.


	10. Brief solitude

Ryoga looked around him. The place did look somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he had seen it before.

"Ryouga, you're home," a girl's voice greeted him.

He turned toward the sound of the voice and was surprised. "Akari? I didn't know you're in London,"

"You swine, you" Akari said affectionately. "You're at my home,"

"You mean… I've managed to reach here in one go?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Congratulation then," she said while walking to him briskly.

But before she could put hug him, he held his hand. "Akari, please move to somewhere safe,"

"What's wrong?"

"Just get away from here! It's dangerous!" Ryouga shouted. He must get her away before it was too late.

Akari hesitated for the briefest moment before she nodded and ran.

Ryoga looked at her leaving before turning in the direction where he felt the threatening aura originated. There was no one there. Then he felt it, turning back toward Akari, he saw a woman looking at her retreating form.

"Hmm… The girl seemed to hold a very special place in your heart, isn't she?" the woman asked.

"I'm not going to let you do anything to her," Ryouga said through gritted teeth as he settled into an attacking stance.

The woman shook her head. "I have no interest in her. If I really wanted to kill her, don't you think that I could have at least made an attempt to do that?" She moved her hand and a spear pierced the tree next to Ryouga. "I'm here to talk to you,"

"Why do you think I will talk to a stranger?"

The woman waved a hand and a stool appeared behind her. Taking a seat, she said, "I thought that they already told you about me. I'm Kencana,"

"Damn you!" Ryouga said while charging his Shi Shi Hokodan immediately and fired it at her.

Kencana held a hand to stop the ki ball and then calmly dispersed it. "It seemed that they did tell you. It made my job a bit easier,"

"Of course I know," he spat. "You're the one who corrupted the spell protecting Nerima,"

"Maybe I am, but are you sure that I'm the one who did it?" Kencana asked while smiling.

"Yes. They told me,"

"A hypothetical accusation, one that doesn't have any concrete evidence. You will have no proof to implicate me," she said while crossing her arms, giving him a bored look. "For them to know this, then one of them may be a magician, probably the vixen Tendo Nabiki. Unfortunately, I'm very certain that your magician friend doesn't have any proof at all. You can go and ask her all you want; even if you try to force her to lie on your behalf, it would be in vain, as a magician will never lie,"

"What do you mean?"

"Those who speak out the holy or even the unholy verses must be able to do so without a shred of uncertainty. Hence, they will never taint their words with lies so as not to reduce their spells' effectiveness," Kencana shrugged. "Of course, there are exceptions but their power will be severely limited," She then grinned. "Unlike martial artists' rather cheap words, you can always believe a magician to speak the truth and fulfill their promises'," she pointed toward him, "as you had demonstrated to me,"

"My words aren't that cheap,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!"

Kencana stood up. She then settled into a fighting stance as well. "As you can see, I would be fighting you without my spear. Be grateful as I'm giving you a lot of advantages,"

"SHUT UP!" Ryouga shouted as he lunged toward her and launched a powerful haymaker.

Kencana lightly tapped Ryouga's wrist, causing his punch to miss. She then executed an axe kick, only to have it blocked by Ryouga's knee. She smiled and then disappeared from the sight.

He looked around quickly, but there was no one. Then his instinct began screaming for him to move and he had just managed to avoid from a hand strike to his neck. Then, using his body momentum, he dropped to the ground and launched a leg sweep. To his satisfaction, the sweep connected and Kencana dropped to the ground. "That will teach you to play hide and seek," he growled as he jumped toward her.

"Well, we can always play rough," she replied while hitting the ground next to her. Instantly, the ground exploded and showered Ryouga with rocks.

However Ryoga, trained by Cologne to withstand extreme pain only needed to cover his eyes from the debris. "This is how you're supposed to do it," Ryouga muttered as he used Bakusai Tanketsu to return the favor. One of the flying rocks managed to hit Kencana's stomach and she almost dropped to the ground in pain.

"Ugh… you've succeeded in angering me," She jumped away from him while simultaneously held out her right hand. "**Bumi yang mendengar seruanku…" **(O' Earth that heed my call). Before she complete her incantation, Ryouga has shifted to behind her. _"He's quite fast," _she thought before she felt him using double fists to hit her back.

"I don't how Ranma managed to be defeated by you," the martial artist said as he watched her getting up. "You don't certainly look strong. The skill is there or even more than mine I may say so, but not the speed and the endurance to complement it,"

Kencana was livid. "You wouldn't be boasting if I didn't give you a chance and use m…" she stopped as her eyes widened in realization. Slowly, the anger was replaced with a smile. "What do you know, you've helped me understand something,"

When she fought with her soul mate, an unexpected event had taken place. That wench sorceress had appeared and managed prevent her from attacking him with her Plume de Lune. Kencana could not explain how but the wench had somehow prevented her Plume de Lune from being released into its second stage. Afterwards, to her anger, Kencana couldn't move her body. But neither did the other female. Although the standoff ended in a draw, with her retreating and the girl not doing anything, it showed that to succeed, she needed an underling or someone that would fight on her behalf.

Since Aozora, no, Ranma didn't want to join her, she would have to find someone else who was suitable for the job. The jock whose woman called as 'Ryouga' seemed to be a decent fighter, probably on par with Ranma. "You're half right, Ryouga," Kencana said as she dusted her dress. "Perhaps if we continue to fight, you would have beaten me, that is if I don't fight using my spear," She open her right palm and the spear appeared in her hand.

"That's pretty bold of you to be making that comment. I don't see how you can become stronger when you use that weapon,"

"You're right," Kencana disappeared only to appear behind Ryouga, her spear's tip slightly pressing against his neck. "You don't see me at all,"

"How?" Ryouga uttered.

"Power," She removed the spear and reappeared 5 meters in front of him. "Something that I can offer to you,"

"Never!"

"Very well. Then, I would like to collect on your promise to me,"

"I didn't remember making you any promise,"

Kencana covered her face with her hand and when she removed it her face had changed to an old woman's. "Sonny," she said in an old woman's voice, "you promised me a favor for teaching you the techniques,"

"YOU!"

She put her hand back to cover her face and when she moved it again her face was back to normal. "I don't care whether you want to deny it or not; it was me who taught you those techniques. Do you really think an old lady who happens to possess know martial arts live in the middle of the forest in the middle of your random path? Ryouga, everything in this world happens because they are _allowed _to take place; the outcome had overcome other possible outcomes. You Japanese people call it hitsuzen, and by hitsuzen we met that time,"

"I will never cooperate with someone as evil as you,"

Kencana laughed mockingly. "That's what you said just now," She wagged her finger. "But Ryouga, how can you be sure that I am the villain, and not your friends? For example, do you know the story about Murasaki Shikibu?" She smiled when he slowly nodded. "Is she evil or not?"

"Of course not! She merely wrote the 'Tales of Genji' almost more than a thousand years ago,"

"How come you're so sure?"

"Because I am," he insisted.

"Then, sadly for you, you're contradicting yourself. I was Murasaki Shikibu in my previous life,"

"LIE!"

Kencana's Plume de Lune began to glow. "Looks like I have to do this the hard way," she said as she appeared directly in front of him and delivered a swift kick to the stomach, hurling him into a tree trunk. "Evil is merely a perspective, Ryouga. What I think as evil may not necessarily be evil to you. And for you to talk about me being evil… that's a bit naïve," She watched as he struggled to get up. "From your answers, I already deduced that you don't really know anything,"

"So what?" Ryouga drawled as he began concentrating his energy into his Shi Shi Hokodan, making it larger than the normal one. "I will defeat you with the Perfect Shi Shi Hokodan. EAT THIS! PERFECT SHI SHI HOKODAN!" he shouted as he released the technique and the whole area was surrounded with a large explosion.

When the explosion abated, Ryouga was shocked to see that Kencana didn't seem to be affected by the attack, protected by a globe of energy.

"A very powerful orderly destruction attack," she said calmly. "Pity I can't use that technique. Now, where was I? Oh yes," she reappeared next to him. "Now, you will learn the twisted truth,"

A few seconds later, Ryouga's scream echoed throughout the area, causing tears to stream out of the fleeing Akari.

* * *

A loud alarm echoed throughout the Blessbringer compound, followed by a loud explosion. Itachi Blessbringer, seated meditatively in his room didn't get up even as more and more clan members descended upon the point of intrusion. He had foreseen the day and was prepared for it. That was why he didn't even move when there was sound of battles followed loud screams.

Finally the battle stopped and the stench of blood wafted into his room. Even then he still remained still.

The door opened up and a smiling Schneider entered. "I don't know or how why you don't react to me killing our clansmen just now," he quipped offhandedly.

"Why are you here, Schneider? I distinctly remember that you saying that you don't care for the clan to my grandfather thirty years ago." Itachi said as he looked at the man whose face was around thirty plus.

"Oh, that… you know, you really have a good memory. For your information, I told your grandfather's grandfather the same thing too," he said as he sat in front of Itachi. "But I would like to ask you something. Is the clan still interested in killing Kencana?"

Despite the suspicion he felt, Itachi felt compelled to ask back. "Why do you ask?"

"Maybe I can help."

"Why a power-crazed man like you would like to help? After all, it is in the best interest of you to keep us from killing her before you can get her power."

"My recent research found out something very interesting. Do you know why Blessbringer clan was ravaged?"

"No."

"It is because our ancestors, in their infinite idiocy, which turns out for the best, killed her guardian in order to lure her into a trap to kill her."

"I take it you're suggesting that our clan have been fighting against her a very long time?"

"No, that's not it. Her sword, Mimei Ketsurui holds the key to infinite power, or as it was said." He neglected to mention about the records he found suggesting Mimei Ketsurui was given to her guardian. If the case was true, then unlike what Itachi had thought, Blessbringer clan wasn't really an honorable clan to begin with. To Schneider, he didn't care anyway since his objective is to gain power, and if he had to resort to allying himself with the Blessbringer garbage, so be it. "It is said that the weapon hold a part of her soul."

"I don't see why our clan will be interested in this revelation. Surely we understand"

"A weapon forged from her soul is immune from her power. It was said that the holder of the sword had laid with her, which is why she had forged the weapon for him."

"So you're saying that you want the sword."

"Don't be ridiculous. The sword disappeared when she 'died'. The current Kencana can only be killed using a weapon forged from her soul, not the previous reincarnation's. Which is why I am here, as I know something that you don't."

"Do tell me."

"I believe she may be recruiting her guardian."

* * *

Ranma entered the door of the sundae shop, mentally wishing that his assumption was right. To his relief, the person that he was searching for was sitting facing a wall at a corner, eating a strawberry sundae by herself. Activating Umisenken, he walked slowly toward her. Just as when he was few steps away from her, she spoke.

"That technique isn't really useful, since I can see your reflection on the sundae glass,"

"I wasn't thinking of surprising you or something," he said defensively as he took a seat in front of her. "Besides, I didn't activate the technique's higher level,"

"Saotome-kun, that technique is useless on me," Nabiki said before scooping the heavenly concoction in front of her into her mouth. "Need I remind you that the last time you tried that I sniffed you out?"

"Er, yeah," Ranma said. He certainly remembered the day when he followed her, hoping to dig up some dirt on her. Even though he had used the higher form of Umisenken which not only erased his presence but also made him invisible, she managed to somehow detect him.

"Please remember this, Saotome-kun. I can detect anyone nearby. The only way you can catch me by surprise is by using Unmei Kiriage to cut through dimension and open a hole near me,"

"I don't understand why you're telling me this,"

"All in due course, Saotome-kun. Now, care to tell me why you're here? Now, maybe Kasumi or Akane asked you to fetch me since I didn't return home after school, but I don't think so,"

"Why don't you help?" The question marked the pinnacle of Saotome clan's diplomacy skills that was inherited throughout generations; the inability to state question a bit tactfully.

Nabiki gazed at him quietly, unnerving him. After a pregnant pause she finally replied, "Do you really want to know the answer, Saotome-kun?"

"Yes,"

She gave him the same look, all the while eating her ice cream. "If you really want it, I'll reveal it to you later. For now, please let me eat in silence." He nodded. After they left the shop, she turned toward him, "I know that you have more than just one question you want to ask me. I'll answer three of them, so please think carefully before you ask."

"So, how much?"

"Hmm?" Nabiki knew what he meant but wanted to hear the answer from him.

"Everything has a cost. So, how much will it cost me to get the answer from you?"

Putting a hand over her heart, Nabiki mocked shock. "My goodness, Saotome-kun. Your comment really hurt me. Do you think that I'm just a bloodthirsty money-grubbing woman? Can't I give you something for free just because we're going to be relatives in the future?"

"Pfft… Everything has a cost, that what you taught me. If you give me the information for free because we're going to be relatives, than the cost of that is we becoming relatives. It took me a bit to figure it out, but even though air is free, in order to breathe it, you need to be alive, which is the cost for it."

"Well put, Saotome-kun. Very well, the cost is a bit small. Let's go on a date right now?"

"A date?"

"You know just go out together or something."

"Well…" Ranma really wanted the answers to his questions, but he couldn't be sure whether his money is enough to cover the huge bill that would result from the so-called date. It couldn't be helped. "Okay."

He didn't expect Nabiki to quickly went to his side and take his hand.

"Come, Ranma, let's go."

"Go?" In his utter surprise, he didn't notice that Nabiki had stopped referring him by his family name but instead called his first name.

"You ask a lot today. Didn't I tell you? Think carefully before you ask the three questions." Nabiki said playfully. "You don't want me to answer the trivial ones, do you?"

"You're right."

"Good, now, follow me."

He was half expecting her to go to somewhere unique and not expecting her to go the park. While walking around it, they spent their time talking about what could be construed as normal and important things, but to Ranma whose life was a constant pandemonium, it was an unforgettable experience for him. They finally settled on an isolated bench, with some onigiri Ranma had bought from a nearby shop. _'The rice-based food's filling was quite good,'_ he thought to himself as he finished chewing it, _'though not up to Kasumi's standard'_

"Don't move, Ranma," Nabiki said while picking up a stray grain of rice near his lips and then ate it.

"Um, what did you do just now?"

"Nothing." She stood up and looked at the evening sun. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Kinda reminds you off how insignificant we are in this world."

"Yeah, though pop once told me that it doesn't matter; it's up to ourselves to decide the difference we made, though he was relating it to martial arts at that time." He looked at the girl's face to see a blank look on her. "What?"

"Your father said that?"

"Yeah? So?"

"Ah, sorry. I was imagining him holding the sign while in his panda mode, you see, all the while making growling noise…" she couldn't stop herself from breaking into a giggle.

Once Ranma understood how humorous the situation was, he laughed as well.

After she had stopped, the middle Tendo girl's face became business like. "It's time."

"Huh?"

"Our deal, Saotome-kun. You can ask three questions, and I'll answer them."

"Oh… that." Truth be told, he had forgotten about the deal as he was having fun. Ranma thought for a moment and then asked. "Why don't you help us? I mean, you basically pointed us the way and then just watch from the sideline."

"Did you remember the time when we talk about knowing the future?"

"Yeah," How could he forget that day? Together with Nabiki, he kidnapped a young girl right in front of her boyfriend's very eyes, all the while pretending to be 'James' of the Team Rocket. That day was so bizarre even for him. To top it up, he eventually found the real reason for the kidnapping was so that Nabiki could grant the boyfriend's wish to be able to protect her. "Not really something I'll forget in a hurry,"

Nabiki smiled. "Remember that I said that I sometime have premonitions?"

"Yeah. Then I remember you saying that suppose we know about a future even where a lot will die because of a person. To save them, you change the future by killing that person. But that is prejudiced as because you're judging him for something that he or she hadn't done. But yet, if you wait, it would be too late for everybody else," Ranma said at length.

"Yes, that's the question, isn't it? To kill or not to kill the person. But Saotome-kun, what would you do, given the hypothetical situation?"

"Hippo tentacle? I don't really get the connection."

"Hypothetical… as in something that we imagine. Imagine you're the person who had the knowledge. What would you do? Would you or wouldn't you kill the person?"

Before Ranma could answer, Nabiki put a hand on his lips.

"Don't answer it yet. Think about it carefully, what will happen if the person is someone you know? Will you kill the person? But to be able to kill that person, that's not just a normal killing. I told you that killers would have that heavy burden on their soul. Imagine if they have to kill someone they know? Wouldn't it be more painful to carry out?"

"I understand." He stopped to think. "Maybe you're the one who had the knowledge about the future, which I wouldn't know if I ask."

"Yes, you have to ask to know that" she said while giving off a wily smile.

"I wouldn't. So my next question is: who is the chosen person?"

Grinning like a Cheshire cat, Nabiki, "My, my, that's a bit conniving of you, asking a question that can be interpreted differently." Before he could protest, she said. "I'll answer them. I know it would be you when you appeared with your father that time. That's why I foisted you off to Akane."

"Yea, I remember that day… you're wearing a kimono, and you looked beautiful."

A small blush appeared on her cheeks. "I don't know that you're a smooth talker," she said to cover herself.

"No, I'm not," Ranma said, oblivious to her attempt. "Wait… you haven't answered my question completely."

Glad for an opportunity to change the topic, Nabiki nodded. "Well, to put it simply, you're the one who can cause the world's destruction." She quickly continued before he could say something. "Let me finish first. You causing the world's destruction is the worst case scenario. Maybe nothing bad will happen at all, if you don't count being chased by your suitors as something abnormal."

"But I remember you saying that when something is predetermined or hitsuzen as the term you referred to, it couldn't be changed."

"How do you know that you causing the destruction of the world IS the hitsuzen?"

"I don't know," he admitted.

"You see, Saotome-kun, human is a chaotic being. We profess love to some but wouldn't hesitate to torture others; in fact in some cases, we even hurt those we love. We claim that we are more advanced than mere animals, yet we have degraded ourselves worse than them. It is this chaos can disrupt the flow of hitsuzen. And you are one of the two that have the most powerful chaos energy in the universe."

Ranma was about to ask who the other person was when he remembered the agreement. "So, let me get it straight. You got Akane engaged to me because you don't want to get into trouble with me? I mean, if you're correct, then I must be very dang…" He stopped when she closed the distance between the two of them.

"Ranma, it's not what you think." She whispered as she buried her face on her chest.

He could feel her hand clenching his cloth. "But you said that you foi…"

"Don't." she said more firmly. "Please don't say it because both of us will regret it later."

"I understand."

They remained in the same position for quite some time. Ranma thought of putting his hands around her but wasn't sure whether it was the right thing to do.

"I knew it was you at that time, even though…," she trailed off. "I didn't mind it at all, the curse. But at the same time, it means that I wouldn't be able to keep my promise."

"Promise? What promise?"

Nabiki tightened her grip. "It's okay. It's not really important anyway. May I be a bit selfish and ask another thing from you?"

"What is it?"

"Please hold me like this for a while longer," she whispered.

* * *

1

* * *

Author's note (17 November 2007)

1. It's been a while since I updated this story. Oh well, what the heck. No one missed it, right?

2. The part on where Kencana claimed to train Ryouga... it explains a segment in Ever Stay Chaotic where Ryouga fought with Ranma, claiming to learn a new technique from an old lady from the middle of the forest.


End file.
